


The Stars Are Colder Than They Look

by BiSisters



Series: The Stars Are Colder Than They Look [1]
Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Alien Impostor(s) (Among Us), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Death, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Little Blue is a little shit, Multi, Near Death Experiences, No Smut, Violence, blue brings her CHILD, blue is kind of a bad parent lmao, first its vv fluffy then oh boy theres a truckload of angst, haha the firsties are literal noobs, impostors are alien parasites, lots of dead bodies, lots of death, oh boy, oh boy thats a lot of death, some gore, someone is literally torturing and murdering people one by onee, sorry nobody dies till chapter 7, then again what did u expect she brought her kid into ACTUAL SPACE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:48:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 24,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28114893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiSisters/pseuds/BiSisters
Summary: The crewmates tasked with Skeld Mission T0098 think they're just completing a simple transport mission... But the crates in storage held more danger than they first thought.Rated Teen for swearing and violence (also light gore warning)
Relationships: Cyan/Red/Yellow (Among Us), Pink/White (Among Us)
Series: The Stars Are Colder Than They Look [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2095140
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	1. Takeoff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Purple can't wait to begin her first trip to space.

Everything was perfect. 

At least, that’s what Elowen, or Purple as she was to be called from here on out, was thinking as she surveyed the waiting room. It was pristine, with tile floors and all-white walls aside from one made entirely of glass panes. The glass wall overlooked the launch deck, and Purple was nearly jittery with excitement as she gazed downwards at the ship. In less than a few hours, she’d be on it, in space, with the gaggle of crewmates that currently accompanied her. Excited murmuring filled the air as the crewmates stole glances out the window-wall.

She tried to absorb the scene around her, packing its ambiance and the butterflies in her stomach into a little parcel of memory, hoping it’d be something she could look back on in a decade or so. Reaching a hand into her pocket, she grasped her wallet. It contained her ID card and a few pictures of her family. She smiled, comforted by it. Her departure from her home had been a lengthy and tearful affair, as her parents insisted on giving her seemingly every piece of advice they’d ever heard along with several different variations of ‘I love you’. She’d practically had to wrench herself away, insisting that she would be late if she didn’t leave straight away.

“El- Purple!” A familiar voice called out, correcting himself mid-speech. Purple turned to see Markitt barrelling towards her, his suitcases dragging behind him. He wore an orange suit, a bright and flashy color that Purple thought suited him well, and his normally-messy dark hair was combed neatly so that it didn’t resemble a tangled mop.

“Mar!” Purple was nearly knocked over by his hug. 

“I can’t believe we’re here,” Markitt, who Purple supposed she should call Orange now, breathed as they separated. 

“I know, right?” Purple couldn’t stop herself from grinning widely. “It feels like just yesterday I stepped foot in the Academy…” She trailed her fingers along the glass of the giant window-wall and let out a happy sigh. She felt as if everything in her life had built up to this experience. Finally, Purple was going into space.

“Okay, crewmates!” A commanding voice directed everyone’s attention towards the person in brown who’d just stepped through the door. Purple presumed them to be the captain. They had neatly combed brown hair tied back into a small ponytail, and a light complexion scattered with freckles. They flipped open their tablet before speaking again.

“Looks like everyone is here. I am your captain for this mission, you may call me Brown, or Captain, or whatever. This is Green,” Brown gestured to the crewmate on their left. “He is my co-captain for this mission. We have a lot of newbies, and we expect you to all fully listen to and respect your superiors.” 

Purple looked to Green. His demeanor was not unlike Brown’s- he had an air of leadership and experience, though his slight smile gave away some prideful emotion. He reminded Purple of a teacher who was just out of college himself.

“Now, take your belongings and follow me to the launch deck.” Brown took the handle of their own suitcase and began pulling it, and the other crewmates started to follow. Around Purple, the air of excitement that had previously been wafting around the room seemed to intensify. Purple grabbed her own suitcase and adjusted her backpack as she hurried after Brown, determined not to be the last in line. 

Purple and the others headed down hallways and staircases, their enthusiastic footsteps tapping across the floor. At last, Brown pushed open a set of double doors, leading everyone out onto the launch deck. 

The deck was more of an open garage than just a platform. Mechanical sounds and vehicular spluttering immediately assaulted Purple’s ears, and she nearly winced. She hadn’t expected the launch deck to be so… _loud_. Still, she and the group continued across the concrete floor towards a ship. 

As she climbed the stairs, more anticipation than ever buzzed in Purple’s chest. Sure, she’d been in ships before during her Academy training, but never ships that were actually about to launch. 

The portion of the ship they’d be seated in as it launched was not very large. Purple quickly found the seat with her helmet on it- as per tradition, crewmates’ helmets marked their launch seats- and stowed her baggage in the compartment above it. The setup was not unlike that of an airplane, except all of the seats faced the middle and had much more complex seatbelts. Purple fumbled with hers for a moment before getting all the clips correctly in place, and set her helmet on her lap.

At last she surveyed the crewmates around her. There was of course Orange, grinning widely, and Brown and Green, who had yet to sit down. Brown was helping a girl Purple recognized from the Academy, White, stow her luggage in an overhead compartment. Purple and White had classes together, though they hadn’t talked much, as White was a relatively quiet person. A seat away from White sat someone else in a blue suit, holding the hand of a smaller crewmate, also in a blue suit. They shared the same almond-shaped dark eyes and straight black hair, so Purple assumed them to be possibly parent and child. Another crewmate in a black suit sat a seat away, looking almost bored. Next to him, a crewmate in a red suit brushed a lock of brown hair behind her ear as she glanced around as well. The red suit then waved at a yellow-suited crewmate, who waved back with a smile. Next to her, a crewmate in cyan whispered something into Yellow’s ear, and she giggled. A few seats away were someone in lime, and someone in pink, the latter Purple recognized as White’s boyfriend. 

“Okay, we are going to be launching in about five minutes now,” Brown announced, their voice cutting into Purple’s thoughts. “If someone has any problem before we take off, now is the time to speak up.” They paused and looked around. “All right then. Now…” Brown launched into a lecture on safety regulations and whatnot as someone closed the door to the ship. Purple hung onto their every word, though she’d heard it all before. Just as Brown finished, the entire room seemed to rumble. Purple looked to the sky, or, more accurately, the metal-plated ceiling.

_Space, here I come!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Purple is so innocent lol
> 
> Also fun fact!! This is a re write of another fic i wrote, i tried to make it better this time lol


	2. We Really Are In Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crewmates settle into the Skeld. (This is mostly fluff) (Also meet the POV characters!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW firsties = its their first mission (basically everyone else thinks they r inexperienced)

Blue unbuckled her seatbelt clips and then turned to help her daughter with hers.  
“Are we really in space?” Little Blue asked, wide-eyed. Blue nodded, causing her daughter to erupt into cheers and start running around the room. Blue simply sighed as chuckles broke out amongst the other crewmates. For a moment, Blue reconsidered her decision to bring the child.  
_I could’ve easily left her with her grandmother. But it isn’t healthy for her to be separated from her parents for so long, is it? I suppose not…_ Kyrie, Little Blue’s other mother, was already on a mission and wouldn’t be back for a good couple months. _She’ll be fine_ , Blue assured herself. But the very description of the mission floated back into her mind as she carried her and Little Blue’s luggage through the narrow hallway and into the main cafeteria of the ship. They’d been tasked with picking up some so-called “biological samples” from Polus and transporting them back to MIRA’s HQ. If it had just been that, Blue wouldn’t be so worried. But the size of the crew seemed abnormally large for such a seemingly minor task.  
_I’m worrying too much._ , Blue told herself as she deposited hers and Little Blue’s bags on a cafeteria table, then sat down herself. The bench at the table creaked as she sat down, and Blue ran a hand over the clearly-not-brand-new furniture. The plastic surface of the table was scratched and dulled from years of use, and the metal parts could do with a new paint job. _Oh, well._ Blue had seen worse ships.  
She pulled Little Blue onto her lap as Brown’s voice echoed through the cafeteria. They were standing on a cafeteria bench to get everyone’s attention.  
“Welcome to the Skeld!” Brown then hopped down to the tile floor once the chatter of the crewmates quieted down. “As you may know, we’re in space now.”  
Laughter rippled through the gathered crewmates. Blue glanced to the cafeteria ceiling, which, instead of metal plating or ceiling tiles like much of the rest of the ship, was glass.  
“As this is just a routine transport mission, we won’t have any special duties besides keeping up maintenance on the ship. However, that doesn’t mean we can sit idly. Those of you who aren’t newbies will know a ship needs a lot of maintenance.” Blue nodded along to Brown’s spiel. She’d heard it probably dozens of times by now, said by dozens of captains. There was little time for lounging about, there was a lot of work to be done, yada yada. In actuality, there would be plenty of time for lazing if one so desired. Usually, missions like this just required that they stop any possible equipment malfunctions, and for Blue, who was a medical officer, not really much work unless someone fell out of their bunk and sprained their wrist, or something of that nature. Still, Blue pretended to look attentive as Brown finished their speech.

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Purple stared up at the glass dome that was the cafeteria’s roof. Beyond it, thousands of stars glittered, a thousand opportunities in the vast void of space. She wanted to pull up her MIRA-assigned tablet’s camera app and take a picture, but worried she’d look rude for not listening to Brown.  
“...As for rooms, you’re welcome to bunk with whomever you’d like. The Skeld has four bunkrooms and two single rooms, the single rooms being reserved for your captain and co-captain. The only rules for bunking is that each person should occupy one bunk, and beds are first come, first serve. Now, go and put away your belongings.” Brown dismissed them, and Purple grabbed her suitcase and slung her backpack over her shoulder. Orange, who was sitting next to her, grabbed his baggage and they both joined the stampede of people hurrying through the locker room into the hallway that contained the sleeping quarters. Well, perhaps Purple wasn’t completely right to call it a stampede, considering there were really only a dozen crewmates in total. But it definitely felt like one when they all squeezed into the small hallway that led to the bunkrooms.  
Purple found herself in Bunkroom 2 with Orange, and she quickly deposited her backpack onto the closest bunk. The bunks were built into the wall, each having its own curtain that could be pulled across the opening of its niche in the wall for privacy. Above the bunks were storage shelves, and Purple heaved her suitcase into the one above the bunk she’d claimed.  
The blue-suited crewmate also entered, her child close behind her.  
“Mind if we bunk here?” Blue asked, gesturing to the two unclaimed beds.  
“Why not.” Purple shrugged.  
“The more the merrier,” Orange added as he fiddled with one of the lockers built into the far wall. Purple joined him, stepping around the small card table in the center of the room, the only piece of furniture that wasn’t built into a wall.  
“Guess these are where we put our suits,” Purple said, opening hers. The locker was far from new, with scratches exposing the metal underneath its slate-colored paint and graffiti scribbled inside the door.  
“Think I can fit in here?” Orange was already trying to step into the small space. Purple laughed at him.  
“You’re gonna get stuck!”  
“Too bad!” Orange continued trying to squeeze himself into the locker as Purple rolled her eyes and turned away. Opening her backpack, she took out her tablet and turned it on. Already, Green had created a conversation channel with all of them in it, his message stating that it was for communication purposes. Purple wasn’t really sure how to create communication channels, but knew it required the ID’s of the participants.  
“I give up.” Orange said, and Purple looked up to see him wedged halfway into the locker in what must have been an awkward position to hold. She stifled a laugh as he tumbled out onto the tile floor. _I think this will be a fun first mission._

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

“We should go explore the ship,” Pink suggested to White. They’d just finished setting up their belongings in Bunkroom 3, and Brown had announced in the groupchat that they all had a half hour before dinner was to be served.  
White nodded. “It feels weird being in an actual ship. Even with all of MIRA’s simulations.”  
Pink shrugged. He’d honestly expected the ship to be more interesting somehow. Not that literally being in space wasn’t interesting, but the ship’s interior didn’t look all that different from MIRA Academy. Both had a lot of tile floors, blank white or gray walls that made the place feel like some kind of asylum, and MIRA logos on the strangest of things. Even the curtains on the beds had MIRA logos on them.  
The two headed out of Bunkroom 3 and down the hallway, which was barely wide enough for them to walk side by side. They passed through the oddly dingy locker room and entered the cafeteria, where they stopped to marvel at the view of space.  
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this view,” White murmured, a twinkle in her eyes as she gazed up. Pink admired the way her face was lit up by her amazement at the stars, and she caught his eye, smiling even wider.  
They continued, peeping into the medical bay, which smelled quite strongly of antiseptic. Everything seemed to have been recently cleaned and organized, though a lot of the equipment hadn’t been turned on. The security room seemed especially dark, with all its silent monitors. It was evident that nobody turned on the cameras before ships took off.  
“It looks like a place you’d get attacked by a demon from one of those old horror movies,” Pink remarked, plopping down in the swivel chair in front of the monitors. “Imagine what it’ll look like when all the cameras are on.”  
White shuddered. “Cameras creep me out.”  
“Same here.” Pink recalled a video they’d shown crewmates in Academy, old-looking security footage of an imposter shapeshifting to fit into a vent. First it had looked like a normal human, then its body had _softened_ , as if it were made of clay, and its bones shifted under its skin, allowing it entry into the vent.  
“Let’s leave,” White suggested, and Pink was more than happy to do so.  
The reactor, engine and electrical rooms were generally unremarkable, filled with machinery Pink barely knew anything about. White, however, excitedly pointed out that these engines were the same model as the ones she’d studied for a project in Academy, and Pink listened attentively to her rambling about engine design. She seemed eager to apply her knowledge on an actual mission.  
They passed through storage, which was cluttered with crates of supplies, and then wandered into the communications room. Like the others, it was untouched, though its walls were plastered with posters.  
“Look, MIRA propaganda,” quipped Pink, tapping a cartoon that reminded crewmates to wear their helmets as often as possible. Of course, it was another rule that nobody ever listened to, according to the instructors at the academy.  
“Shh! They’ll hear you,” White whispered, snickering.  
“Who’ll hear what?” The voice caused them both to whirl around.  
Green, the co-captain, stood in the doorway.  
“Nothing! Nothing at all.” Pink avoided the crewmate’s eyes.  
“Well, I have to make sure this equipment is set up correctly, so I suggest you two stay out of my way.” Green made his way over to the desk. “Don’t forget, Brown wants everyone in the cafeteria in ten minutes.”  
“Cool! Sounds good! See you then, bye!” Pink tossed the words over his shoulder as he and White scurried out of the room.  
She broke into giggles once they were around a corner.  
“You are _such_ a bad liar.”  
“I didn’t see you saying anything helpful,” Pink huffed, feigning annoyance.  
“I know when to shut up.” White smiled smugly.  
“Sure, call it that.”  
“I’ll shut _you_ up!” White gently shoved him.  
“Sure you will,” Pink teased.  
“I will,” White echoed, leaning close to him. Her eyes glinted. Pink leaned in closer so that their noses were almost touching. He was about to speak when Orange’s annoying voice startled them both.  
“Am I interrupting something?”  
Pink nearly jumped at the sound. Turning around, he saw Orange standing in the doorway to the Admin hallway. Thankfully, Orange appeared to be alone.  
“Nothing- we-” Pink stammered, and Orange responded with a chuckle.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” he assured them, then turned and headed back towards the cafeteria with a dismissive hand-wave. Immediately Pink felt a prickle of annoyance at his haughtiness.  
“Well… I guess we should get to dinner,” White remarked, already heading for the cafeteria.  
Trying to quell the burning in his cheeks, Pink followed her. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

“You’ll never guess who was getting feisty in Storage,” Orange announced as soon as Purple sat down next to him. The four ‘firsties’ were sharing a cafeteria table, with the other crewmates seemingly beginning to break into cliques based on which tables they occupied as well.  
“You said you wouldn’t tell!” Pink exclaimed. Beside him, White seemed to be trying to cover her reddening cheeks. “Plus, it’s not like we actually did anything…”  
“Only ‘cause I came in.”  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Tell me what happened,” Purple said, leaning towards Orange expectantly.  
Orange launched into a likely dramatized tale of his stumbling upon Pink and White getting, in his words, “ _rather close_ ” in the storage room. Purple burst out laughing, while both Pink and White looked rather embarrassed. However, before Purple could press any of them for more details, Green addressed the gathered crewmates.  
“Welcome to your first meal aboard the Skeld!”  
At his words, some cheering arose from the table occupied by Red, Yellow and Cyan.  
“Since we have some firsties here, we’d like to make sure you all know what to do. Brown will assign your tasks at the beginning of each week, though you’ll probably be in the same general rooms due to your jobs.” Green continued explaining things that Purple already knew from Academy. Once he was done, Brown stood to speak.  
“Now, I know you’re all dying to hear what you’ll be responsible for, so I’ve created a spreadsheet of tasks for you all.” Brown stopped to press a button on their tablet, and a chorus of alert notifications echoed through the room. “I’ve just sent it to the group chat, so please take a look sometime before tomorrow so you know what you have to do. Now, without further ado, you may resume your meals.” They sat back down, and Purple checked her tablet. Sure enough, the group chat had received a file of everyone’s duties. The document had two columns for each crewmate- one containing “Official Duties” and the other simply marked as “Chores”.  
“What’s the difference?” Purple thought aloud, and Orange was more than happy to pretend he knew what was going on, as usual.  
“Official Duties are like, what MIRA wants us to do on the ship, and chores are just… y’know, normal chores.”  
Taking a look at her responsibilities, Purple found that he seemed to be mostly right, somehow. Under Official Duties, she was assigned several tasks in the Navigation room, while her only chore was listed to be sweeping the floors.  
“I have to sweep the whole ship?” Purple asked.  
“Guess so,” Orange said, while Pink shrugged. White merely sniffed and pretended to focus on her tablet, presumably giving Purple the silent treatment. Purple rolled her eyes and finished her bowl of MIRA’s sorry excuse for mac n’ cheese. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Blue surveyed the room. The crew seemed to already be dividing into cliques- the firsties, the loners, the slightly more experienced crewmates, and the senior crewmates. The latter group, including herself, Brown and Green, were seated at the middle table. Little Blue sat besides Blue, pushing her noodles around her bowl with her fork.  
“Don’t play with your food, sweetie,” Blue urged the little crewmate, who stuck out her tongue but reluctantly took a bite of food. Blue couldn’t exactly blame her for not liking the rations- MIRA may have been the largest spacefaring company in the world, but it was seriously lacking in its ability to provide its employees with food that was both nonperishable and decent tasting.  
Brown let out a laugh. “Brought your daughter?”  
“Yeah, her other mom’s on… B-103? 104?” Blue tried to remember the name of the planet Kyrie had been stationed on for a year for research. “Either way, I saw no problem with taking her on a routine transport mission.”  
Brown nodded, though they had glanced down towards their tablet. “Hopefully this goes well.”  
“I see no reason why it shouldn’t,” Blue replied with a smile.


	3. Mission? More Like Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crewmates arrive on Polus and pick up the things they're meant to be transporting. Blue realizes the mission may be more dangerous than she thought...

The journey to Polus wasn’t unbearable. Blue found that she had a lot of free time after the Medbay’s equipment had been set up. Evidently, nobody really got any injuries, so Blue spent most of her time in Medbay trying to keep Little Blue occupied, and sometimes helping the others with their scans. Pink, who she was meant to be mentoring, initially seemed surprised at the lack of work, as firsties tended to be. Eventually, everyone fell into a general routine. Blue noticed the others often lounging around as well, which was reasonable considering the very basic nature of their mission. Transport missions tended to be very uneventful. 

As they neared Polus, it was clear excitement was stirring. Besides the firsties, who were obviously completely blown away by everything they’d never experienced before, even some of the slightly more experienced members of the crew seemed interested in the snowy planet. It _did_ have the second-most advanced life forms out of all the planets they knew of, the first most advanced being Earth, of course. 

“I wonder if we’ll be able to stay a few days,” Red sighed dreamily at breakfast one day. Besides her, Cyan snorted. 

“This isn’t a vacation.”

“I know that! I just think Polus is cool, y’know?” Blue could tell Red’s defensive tone was tinged with amusement, but Yellow broke up their bickering anyways. 

“Brown said we’d be staying for a day. I’m sure there’ll be time to head out of the ship and look around.” The other two seemed satisfied enough with this answer. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

As soon as they touched down on Polus, Purple was ready to go. She stood proudly in the storage room along with most of the other inhabitants of the ship. 

“You’re eager,” Orange remarked sleepily, as it was only seven a.m. according to the Skeld’s time. Local time, it was around noon, though the sun remained in a constant position just above the horizon. Polus didn’t spin as it rotated around its sun. 

“We’re literally on another planet!” Purple gazed through the glass of the airlock doors. It was closed, though she could see the launchpad and buildings of the base outside. 

Green entered the storage room. “We’d better hope these airlock doors actually work,” he muttered as he pulled out his ID to open the airlock. The airlock was separate from the door they’d entered through- on the opposite side of the ship, in fact. From what Purple recalled from her Launching and Landing rotation in Academy, the airlock was more frequently used when ships docked at other planets’ bases since there was a ladder built into it. 

Both the doors of the airlock opened, letting a gust of wind into the ship. Purple was glad she’d put her helmet on for once- with the probably-freezing gale came a flurry of snow, and a chilly blast to the face was the last thing she needed at the Skeld’s equivalent of seven in the morning. 

Brown and Green left first, climbing down the short ladder then jumping to the metal launchpad. Purple followed, the rungs of the ladder sturdy in her hands as she climbed down. Surprisingly, being on solid ground again didn’t feel all that unnatural in comparison to the gravity of the ship. She recalled that the ship’s gravity stabilizers mimicked Earth’s level of gravity, which was similar to that of Polus. 

“There’s the Polus crew!” Purple exclaimed as soon as she saw the other crewmates. They emerged from a nearby building carrying what looked to be metal crates. 

“What kind of container is that?” Pink also appeared to be looking at the Polus inhabitants. There were five of them, and each had a crate. Purple shrugged, and even Orange was quiet for a moment, probably trying to think up a guess on what the metal crates were. 

Purple eyed the crates. They didn’t look like the regular containers that currently littered Storage, and she assumed they might be some kind of biological containment unit. She silently cursed herself for not opting to take more than the minimum required biology classes at Academy. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Blue watched the others return to the ship, carrying the boxes that they were meant to transport. There were a few regular sample crates, along with two receptacles that appeared different. They were probably insulated in some manner, and made the regular storage crates seem flimsy in comparison. 

Brown set down the transport paperwork they were holding down on one of the crates while they addressed the crew, and Blue took the opportunity to peek at it. A single glance at the species name confirmed her fears- they were transporting Imposters. The parasitic organisms that regularly killed entire crews. 

Brown, of course, didn’t tell the crew this. Blue doubted even Green knew, though it was possible he did. Instead, Brown talked to the crew as if this was a normal transport mission, and they were just bringing some samples to MIRA.   
As soon as the gathering of crewmates dissolved, Blue confronted Brown.

“You aren’t going to tell them what we’re really transporting?”

An expression of guilt flashed across Brown’s face, though it was quickly replaced by resolve. “No. They don’t need to know.”

“Does Green know?” Blue inquired. 

Brown shook their head, though the action barely displaced any of their neatly styled hair. “It’s his first official mission as a co-captain. I figured he didn’t need the added stress.”

“You’re keeping him in the dark,” Blue accused. She wasn’t sure why she felt so strongly about this. Perhaps it was just the fact that the others might never know the danger they were all in. Perhaps she wasn’t angry at Brown, and instead at MIRA. “...You’re keeping all of them in the dark.”

“Trust me. It’s better they don’t know.” 

Blue sighed. Though reluctantly, she agreed not to tell any of the others what was really going on. She respected Brown, as he was the most experienced of them all. He had to be the captain for a reason. 

However as she headed back to Medbay to log the samples, concern pricked at her. She passed the unusually large group of firsties, carefree as ever as they chattered about how exciting it was to be on another planet. Typically there would only be one or two firsties on a mission, especially with a crew of less than fifteen. 

_What the hell is MIRA trying to do…_

Though she had a pretty good guess at why there were so many inexperienced crewmates on the mission, she really didn’t want to face what could be an uncomfortable reality. 

_This mission wasn’t doomed from the start, was it?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe spicy... Blue is also definitely regretting bringing her child now lol


	4. Game Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crewmates have a game night to celebrate their successfully picking up the Polus specimens.

“That was boring,” Orange remarked as soon as he stepped into the ship.

"No, it was cool!" Purple argued, stomping snow off of her boots. "I like that it was the first other planet we've been on."

"Only you could find another planet boring, Orange." Pink laughed, amused by his fellow crewmate's insistence that Polus, a literal other planet, was nothing notable. 

Orange scoffed. "Well, it was. We've got snow back on Earth. And weird animals." 

They continued bickering as they walked to the cafeteria. Already, it was almost dinnertime, and as they entered, Pink noticed almost all of the others were already present. 

"Look at all these pictures I took!" Purple pulled her tablet out of her backpack and began scrolling through her gallery as they sat down. "I think I'll put them in a photobook and send copies to my teachers when we get back."

"That's a nice sentiment," White chimed in, though the remark was a bit distant. She was gazing up at the sky through the window-ceiling of the cafeteria, a hint of a smile on her face. She looked angelic in the moment, her hair wisping around her head, mild thoughtfulness evident on her face as she watched the grey clouds that covered the sky.

At that moment, Green clapped his hands, directing the attention in the room to him. He was standing in front of his usual seat at the center table with Brown and Blue.

"Crewmates! We've successfully picked up the specimens for transport. We'll take off for Earth at ten tomorrow. In the meantime, let's celebrate!"

“We were wondering if you all had any ideas for activities in mind,” Brown chimed in. “We’d like to celebrate with a game night of sorts.”

“Are there games on the ship?” Pink asked. 

“There are a few in the admin room,” Brown replied, then listed off a few familiar card games and board games. “Oh, and ping-pong.”

At the mention of ping-pong, White looked up from her food. 

“We should _definitely_ play ping-pong,” she said after some hurried chewing. 

“Oh nooo. I’m not playing against you.” Pink shook his head, recalling the _hours_ White had spent in the Academy’s library, which just so happened to have a tabletop games section with a few ping-pong tables. Purple also appeared to be concerned by the mention of ping-pong, though Orange, not knowing White, was oblivious. 

“Ping-pong sounds fun,” Yellow agreed, and Red bobbed her head, though she probably would have agreed with everything Yellow agreed with anyways. Yellow, Red and Cyan had gotten rather close in the few months the crew had taken traveling to Polus. 

“We should have a tournament,” Cyan suggested. “Then we all can play.”

“You’re all fools,” Pink sighed as an almost-predatory grin spread across White’s face. No doubt, she was delighted to take down more opponents. 

“What? You scared?” Orange teased.

“You should be,” Pink replied with a glance at White, who smirked. 

“Yeah, White’s scary at ping-pong,” Purple added with a shudder. 

Around them, the other members of the crew were throwing out suggestions for activities. Blue mentioned that she’d brought cards, but knowing her, they were probably somehow both double-laminated and covered in teeth marks from Little Blue. The kid was a bit unhinged, despite her mother’s attempts to childproof everything. 

Lime and Black said nothing, not that Pink expected them to. Black was completely ignoring the conversation in favor of his tablet, on which he was probably “logging his day’s activities”(It was totally a diary.). Lime, however, seemed to be moderately interested, having turned around on the bench of the table he and Black shared to face the rest of the room. 

Meanwhile, Cyan and Red had become quite involved in an argument over which of them would be the ping-pong victor. Orange piped up, insisting he could beat them both, to which they laughed. White continued to sit quietly as usual, though she was clearly watching everyone. Probably judging which of them she could beat. Probably all of them. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Blue watched the other crewmates scurry around. The firsties especially seemed excited- it was their first celebration on the ship, after all. 

_It might be their last._ The thought crept into her mind, and she pushed it away. _No. MIRA must’ve found some good way to transport living impostor specimens, or they wouldn’t’ve sent out a crew. They may be a soulless corporation, but they aren’t stupid._

“Blue? Are you joining the tournament?” Green’s voice pulled Blue from her thoughts, and she turned to face the co-captain. His tone was far more casual than usual- he must’ve been relieved by the relatively uneventful trip.

“Hm, I did play a bit of softball in my youth. I doubt I’ve still got my reflexes, though.” She forced a smile as she spoke. “Eh, I’ll let the kids have their fun.” 

“It is fun, watching the new crewmates see things for the first time,” he remarked, and she couldn’t help but smile for real this time. Not only at the firsties, who were indeed amazed by everything, but also at Green himself, who couldn’t have been more than ten years their senior. He really did seem to be acting the ‘experienced captain’ part. 

“Hey, where’s…,” Blue’s voice trailed off as she noticed Little Blue wandering near the ping-pong table, where Red and Purple had already begun a ‘practice round’. “Honey! Get away from there!” She swooped up her daughter and set her down at one of the tables. 

Little Blue sniffed. “I wanna play.” She pointed in the general direction of the ping-pong table with one of her chubby little toddler fingers. 

“No, no, why don’t you play a game on this?” Blue handed over her tablet, which Little Blue eagerly accepted. Hopefully it would keep the rambunctious child occupied for at least a half hour while the adults enjoyed their games. 

Blue looked around the room to see that the others were almost finished setting up. She headed to the ping-pong table, where most of them appeared to be gathered. 

“So, we’ll go round by round,” Green was explaining. It seemed that everyone was listening to him, aside from Black, who was still working on his tablet, and Brown, who was probably in Admin attending to some kind of captain duties. 

First up were Purple and Orange. 

“You haven’t got a chance against me,” Orange jeered. 

Purple rolled her eyes and tied up her hair. “Suuuure,” she taunted, drawing out the ‘u’ sound. The game began, and the two began hitting the ball back and forth, though it was clear that they both were amateurs. Soon enough, Purple won, and Orange tossed his paddle on the table, complaining loudly. She laughed at him as she high-fived Pink and White, while the next players stepped up. 

Blue watched as they played. Everyone seemed quite invested in the tournament- even Lime played a round. Blue was glad he seemed to be coming out of his shell, though he seemed to have a certain guarded attitude towards the others. He wasn’t shy, though she could tell he was trying not to get close to any of them. 

_I wonder why._

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

“Nice try, firsty.” Cyan extended a hand to Purple, and she shook it. 

“Thanks.” She left her paddle at the table and headed to Orange, Pink and White, who hurried up to meet her as Green started to talk. 

“Well, now that Purple’s been eliminated, we have two contenders left for the champions of the Skeld.” Green held up his tablet, on which he’d created a chart of brackets to keep track of the winners of each game. “Cyan and White.”

“Hm. Too bad you didn’t win,” White remarked to Purple. “I would have liked to play against you.”

Purple laughed. “We can play after this if you want.” She did want to play against White, even if she knew White would easily beat her. 

“You almost beat him,” Pink offered. “You did better than the rest of us, at least, y’know, besides White.” 

“Thanks,” Purple said as she watched White step up to the table. She suddenly seemed to emanate confidence. Well, she _had_ already beat out Lime and Red. Quickly, too, though Purple hadn’t really been watching. Now, she was getting ready to serve the ball, concentration furrowing her brow. 

The game was engaging- the sound of the little plastic ball smacking table, then racket, then table the only sound in the room. Both Cyan and White seemed confident at first, though soon it became apparent that White was winning- she returned every shot effortlessly, seemingly barely breaking a sweat. It made sense, since almost every time Purple had seen her at the Academy library, she’d been in the tabletop games section playing ping-pong. 

After a minute of back-and-forth, Cyan slipped up, just barely hitting the ball, which bounced towards the table but instead fell to the floor as a gasp rose from the others. He muttered something under his breath, then straightened and shook White’s hand. 

“We have a winner!” Green announced, holding up his tablet with the bracket chart. 

Purple headed over to White, who was already hugging Pink. 

“That was so cool, babe, you’re so cool,” Pink exclaimed, earning a grin from White. 

“Ew, get a room.” Orange was behind Purple, pretending to be cool as usual.

Purple snorted. “Someone’s salty he lost.”

“So did you!” Orange’s face crinkled up with mock annoyance, though Purple knew he wouldn’t hold this petty defeat against her. 

The rest of the night was uneventful- Purple wandered around, playing games and generally enjoying herself. There was nothing that could ruin this mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol Pink is such a simp for White
> 
> Also the fluff ends after this chapter.. Lets get some tension going with the next one lol


	5. Blackout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A blackout occurs on the ship. It seems to be a routine issue, but it's found to have detrimental consequences...

“Do you think all the Academy training was really necessary?” Orange asked out of the blue. Purple was with him in the electrical room, as they’d both finished their tasks for the day and were playing cards. Sure, it might have been more comfortable to sit at a table in the cafeteria instead of the electrical room floor, but Little Blue was running around in there, probably looking for things to mess up.

Purple shrugged. “I mean, they do need to teach us everything we need.”

“Yeah, but six months minimum? Kind of a lot if you ask me…” As Orange spoke, the lights dimmed, and around them, the familiar noises of the ship’s machinery running faded as it turned off. “Shit. What just happened?”

“I don’t know…” Purple ran through a list of possibilities in her head. “Wait, something must’ve failed.” 

“No shit.” Orange’s reply was a bit more snappy than usual, though it thinly veiled fear. Both of them stood up.

“I’m gonna check the reactor. It’s probably that,” Purple said, heading for the door. Orange trailed her. 

“I don’t think it’s an electrical thing, I’ll come too.”

While on their way to the reactor, they bumped into Yellow, who was heading in the same direction. Purple couldn’t help but feel a hint of comfort at the more experienced crewmate’s presence. Plus, Yellow was definitely actually qualified to fix the reactor, unlike Purple, who had only taken a few classes in that kind of tech. 

“It’s definitely a reactor thing,” Yellow confirmed as they stepped into the reactor room. It was dimly lit by the emergency lights installed into the walls, and Purple couldn’t help but think they made the ship look eerie. It was a cool kind of eerie, though eerie nevertheless.

Yellow got to work fixing the reactor, as she explained to Purple and Orange what had gone wrong. Apparently, something had triggered the reactor’s emergency shutdown, which put the ship in its “night mode” in order to conserve energy. 

“Oh. I must’ve forgotten to set this…” Yellow muttered to herself as she worked, talking to herself using strange terms that Purple only vaguely recognized from her technical classes. 

“Done.” As Yellow stood and stepped away from the reactor, the main lights turned back on, once again illuminating the ship fully. 

“Thanks!” Purple turned to head back to the electrical room with Orange. _Time to finish that card game._

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

“This is definitely not good.”

Blue stood in the storage room with Brown and Green, in front of two metal crates. Two metal crates that had, just a few hours prior, contained two specimens of one of the most deadly parasites known to man. 

Now, a hole had been corroded in each crate, and the specimens were nowhere to be found. 

“What the fuck happened.” Green’s voice shook as he spoke. Blue had no answers. She didn’t have any information on how the storage units were supposed to work- she was a medic, not some kind of biological containment specialist. 

“We need to tell the others,” Blue said with a frown. “They need to know the danger they’re in.” 

“I agree,” Brown replied, pulling out their tablet and calling an emergency meeting. “Let’s head to the cafeteria.”

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Pink was not having the best day. He’d been assigned to water the plants around the Skeld that week, which meant lugging around a watering can from the locker room to the various locations of potted plants around the ship. Then, Little Blue had somehow managed to break a glass vial on the floor of Medbay, which of course Pink had to clean up while Blue reprimanded her child. 

And now, just as he was almost finished with his daily tasks, the emergency alarm sounded, beckoning the crewmates to the cafeteria as was protocol. 

There was an obvious air of discomfort in the cafeteria, though Pink couldn’t quite place why. Perhaps it had something to do with the power outage earlier. He noted that Brown, Blue and Green stood in front of the middle table where everyone was starting to sit down, concern written all over their faces. 

“Did something happen?” White asked as she sat down next to him. Pink shrugged. 

“I don’t know- this is the first time I think I’ve seen Brown actually kinda worried,” he remarked. Brown seemed like they weren’t the type to express negative emotions easily. 

“All right, crew… You may wonder why I’ve gathered you all here,” Brown began once everyone had taken a seat around the table. “Well, unfortunately, two of the specimens we’re transporting have… escaped.”

“What do you mean, escaped?” Red asked, at the same time as Orange exclaimed, “What specimens?”

Brown cleared their throat. “Two specimens managed to corrode their crates and are now somewhere on the ship.”

“...Corrode their crates? With acid?” Realization gripped Pink as he spoke. White stiffened besides him. 

Slowly, Brown nodded. There was only one species they knew of on Polus that had the ability to produce acid. 

There were imposters loose on the ship. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Around Purple, everyone seemed to be collectively losing their shit. Cyan was muttering to himself, Lime was completely stiff, Red and Yellow were whispering to one another, Black had maybe winced a bit, but he never really showed all that much emotion anyways. 

Purple wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. _Specimens… Living things… From Polus… That can produce acid…_ She didn’t want to say it. She didn’t have to. Orange did.

“There are imposters loose?”

Orange’s eyes were wider than Purple had ever seen them before. She wanted to say something to him, to comfort him- he looked so _disturbed_ , but she didn’t know what to do. 

Thankfully, Blue spoke up.

“Yes. However, we’ve got time to deal with this. They’ve been loose for less than a few hours. They probably haven’t infected anyone yet.”

Purple shuddered at the thought of being infected by one of the parasites. It’d take over your mind, make you wild with hunger, alter your body in order to kill your crewmates… She’d heard the tales whispered by students of MIRA’s Academy, passed down from the more experienced crewmates who taught them. 

“ _Don’t_ panic.” Green’s voice was sharper than usual. “We are going to contact HQ.”

“They’ll be able to guide us on what to do,” Brown added. “Until we get word from them, Level 2 threat of emergency protocols are to be followed.” They gestured to one of the posters on the wall detailing emergency guidelines. 

Purple glanced at the poster, glad she’d remembered to put in contacts that morning. In MIRA’s typical modern style, it detailed the levels of emergency and what crewmates were to do in each case. Level 2 wasn’t exactly high, but it wasn’t something to brush off, either. Sort of like a tornado watch, if tornadoes were parasitic alien creatures. 

“Meeting adjourned.” Green immediately began to walk towards the door to the admin hallway. 

“Make sure to follow the emergency protocol!” Blue said, hurrying over to Little Blue, who was reaching for the screen on the food dispenser. 

“Holy shit. This is awful,” Orange exclaimed aloud. 

“We’ll be fine as long as we follow the emergency guidelines,” Purple insisted. “Plus, Green’s gonna talk to MIRA. They’ll tell us what to do.”

“What can they do? There’re imposters on the ship. They’ve only given us basic preventative measures,” Pink said. He and White were gripping each other’s hands as if they might be attacked by an imposter at any moment.

“We’re totally all gonna die.” Orange covered his face with his hands. 

Looking at the other crewmates, they only seemed a bit more assured. Purple knew many of them had dealt with imposters before, though she wasn’t exactly certain on how much experience they had. According to MIRA, the chances of actually having to deal with imposters on a ship were low. 

Yellow and Cyan were talking to Lime, while Red was looking at the emergency guideline poster. Black had already donned his helmet and was heading for the door to the weapons room, and the senior crewmates had dispersed already. 

Purple began gathering her tablet. She did still have things to do. 

_We’ll be fine… We have to be. MIRA will help us… Right?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know you all want the death... its coming soon you bloodthirsty little rats


	6. No News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is basically fluff with Blue and Little Blue

“C’mon, hun, time for food!” Blue beckoned her daughter, who was jumping on one of the Medbay beds. 

“I wanna play,” Little Blue whined, not pausing in her bouncing. 

“No, dear, you need to come to the cafeteria,” Blue said, picking up Little Blue. Usually, she’d just let the kid roam around as she pleased, but due to the emergency level, all children were required to be actively supervised by an adult at all times. It was protocol. 

Crewmates were already milling around in the cafeteria- they all ate their evening meal at the same time, since it was a good time to hear the day’s news. Blue got her food and Little Blue’s from the dispenser and took her seat near Green at the middle table.

“Hear anything from MIRA?” She asked, removing her helmet and running a hand through her brown hair, which had gotten a little tangled under her helmet. 

He shrugged. “Sort of. They said they needed time to come up with a plan, and to stay at Level 2.” 

“That’s not good.” It was never a good sign when MIRA couldn’t give an immediate answer. Considering how generally incompetent they were at keeping their employees alive, the time they were using to draft some probably-ineffective plan could make a difference in whether someone died or not. 

Brown joined them, and Green relayed the information to them while Blue ate quietly, wondering if they might be doomed. 

_Stop thinking like that. You’ve dealt with imposters before, you can handle them…_ But the worries continued to fill her mind. There were too many things that made this complicated- notably, how many firsties there were. Plus, now Blue had to keep her daughter safe at all costs. _I shouldn’t’ve brought her… Now she’s in danger. She might never see Kyrie again._ Blue’s heart ached as she thought of her wife. She imagined how devastated Kyrie would be as the deaths of her wife and daughter were reported to her. 

_I can’t let that happen._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun facts!! Here are the rooms the crewmates spend most of their time in
> 
> Brown - As captain, they'd be in the Admin room the most  
> Green - As co captain, he's in charge of communications, so predictably spends most of his time in that room  
> Blue - As head medical officer, she's usually in Medbay  
> Purple - Usually in navigation, since she specialized in that in Academy  
> Pink - Technically in MIRA's equivalent of a residency, so also usually in Medbay  
> White - Usually in weapons (Also her specialty in Academy, though she did study general tech as well)  
> Orange - Usually in electrical (You guessed it,,, he studied that in Academy)  
> Red - Studied general tech in Academy as well, but mainly is in charge of engines since she has the most experience with them  
> Yellow - Usually in Reactor (Her specialty in Academy!! lol)  
> Cyan - Usually working with the cameras, but will be anywhere there is a general tech issue  
> Black - Usually in oxygen  
> Lime - Usually in shields  
> Little Blue - Wanders pretty much anywhere but you can bet wherever she goes, there is going to be something broken. Or glitching. Or stolen.


	7. Tragedy Has Struck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Purple wasn't prepared for what she was about to witness in Electrical. 
> 
> **Also, warning for mild gore, but I think you kinda knew what you were getting into when you started clicking around among us fanfic... lol

The halls seemed strangely foreboding as Purple walked towards the electrical room. Ever since the imposter specimens had escaped into the ship two days ago, everyone seemed to be on edge. 

Purple pondered why MIRA hadn’t given them more instructions than “stay on Level 2 emergency protocol”. She hoped they’d come up with something soon. 

As she neared the electrical room, she noticed something was off. The door was closed. She took out her ID and pressed it to the sensor, but the door didn’t open like it should’ve. Instead, the sensor’s screen flashed with a message:

[EMERGENCY LOCK ACTIVATED. PLEASE ENTER CODE TO DISMISS.]

Purple knocked on the door. “Orange? You there?”

She knew the emergency lock needed either a code, which she didn’t know, or activation from the sensor that had been used to activate the lock to unlock. 

There was no response from beyond the thick metal door. Purple banged on it, thinking that perhaps Orange just hadn’t heard her through the door. “Orange?”

“Purple? What’re you doing?”

Purple whirled around to see Red.

“I… The emergency lock is activated,” Purple responded, gesturing to the still-closed door. “I think Orange must have activated it on accident.”

Red stiffened. Purple wished she could see her face, but they were both wearing their helmets, as per level 2 protocol. 

“...You’ll have to ask Brown for the emergency code,” Red said after a moment, though her tone had changed. Something about it was tense. 

Red took the lead as they both walked towards the admin room. When they told them of the situation, Brown shook their head slightly and muttered something, then walked back to the electrical room with them. 

“Get behind me,” Brown told Purple. Their hand lingered near their pocket as they opened the electrical room’s door. 

The room was dark- the lights had been manually turned off. Red stepped in front of Purple as Brown reached for the panel on the wall to turn them on. 

Purple caught a glimpse of dark liquid on the floor, trailing behind the divider in the middle of the electrical room. She started towards it, but Red stopped her as Brown stepped forwards. 

“What are you doing?” Purple tried to nudge Red aside, but the other crewmate stood firm.

“Don’t.” Red’s tone was darker than usual. 

Meanwhile, Brown had reached the divider, and peered past it. They gasped and stepped backwards. 

Purple couldn’t handle the suspense. _What are they being so secretive about? Why are they treating me like a kid?_ She barged past Red, who made an effort to stop her, but failed as Purple hurried to the divider. Brown said something as she passed them, but their words fell on deaf ears as Purple reached the divider and stepped into the second section of the electrical room. 

She immediately regretted it. 

Orange’s corpse was leaning against one of the many devices in the electrical room. What was left of it, that was. 

A good half of his torso was gone- it looked as if it had been _chewed_ through, leaving his splintered ribs exposed and organs and viscera spilling out onto the dingy floor, which was now slicked with blood. His face was covered with blood, which seemed to have spilled from his now-empty eye sockets. His arms were completely gone, ripped away at the shoulder as if by a wild animal. 

Purple was locked in place, staring at Orange’s body. _No… How could this happen? No… No..._ She felt a tug on her arm; Brown was trying to lead her away from the scene. She realized that she’d been repeating it, “No,” over and over again, yet she couldn’t stop herself, and her vision began to blur as her legs buckled under her. No, it couldn’t be true. Someone couldn’t be dead already. They weren’t supposed to die. Her first mission wasn’t supposed to go like this. 

Brown said something to Red, who ran out of the room, then they knelt down next to Purple.

“Purple. Listen to me.”

She was locked in a trance, it was so awful, _No… No… How could this happen?_

“Purple.” Brown shook her shoulders, and she turned to them numbly. They said something to her, but she didn’t quite hear it, she kept looking back to Orange, who was still dead, he was still dead and she might be soon too, no, she didn’t want that, why did this happen, they’d done everything they were asked to do, they followed all the rules, but now this…

Suddenly Blue was by her side, talking as well, leading her to the cafeteria, and everyone was coming into the cafeteria, Blue was offering her tissues, and everyone was staring, their blurred faces a mixture of concern and realization. The room was too quiet, yet Purple didn’t really care anymore, she just robotically accepted the tissues Blue was offering and sat at the table with her helmet in her lap. It had been removed sometime after she’d seen the body in electrical. 

Brown addressed everyone, telling them the news, and was met with shock as far as Purple could tell. Of course, she wasn’t really paying attention, just staring down at the table, wondering how this could happen. 

_We did everything we were supposed to… We followed all the rules… Yet now Orange is dead…_

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

“I regret to announce to you that Orange is dead.”

Brown’s announcement hit the cafeteria like a sack of bricks. The mood turned from anxious to crestfallen as the meaning of this sunk in. There was at least one imposter in the Skeld. 

Next to Pink, White shuddered. He squeezed her hand, trying to be reassuring, though he was sure she could tell how tense he was. Orange was dead. The news sounded like it couldn’t be true- they’d just seen Orange, a few hours ago, but now he was dead. 

After a pause, Brown continued speaking. 

“We will be going into emergency level 3. We now know there’s at least one, maybe two imposters, since we don’t know if both of the parasites have infected hosts yet. I’ll pair you all up, and you are responsible for checking in on your buddy every fifteen minutes.” Brown then read off a list of pairings- Pink and Blue, Lime and White, Purple and Black, Brown and Green, and Yellow, Red and Cyan. The pairings seemed to be based on each crewmate’s most commonly frequented location. 

Around the table, everyone turned to look towards their partner. Nobody complained- many of them were still taken aback by Orange’s sudden death. Brown then continued speaking.

“I will divide up Orange’s duties among the rest of you, so be on the lookout for a message from me.”

“We also would like a full report of what everyone has been doing since lunch. Anyone happen to see Orange after lunch?” Green asked. 

“I passed by the electrical room a few times when getting fuel from storage, and the doors were opened,” Red spoke up. Her tone was firmer than usual, as if she was trying to convince herself that Orange’s death had not impacted her. She sat with one arm around Yellow, who was picking at a nail anxiously. 

“What time did you last see the doors open?” Green questioned, typing something into his tablet. 

“Um…” Red paused, tilting her head to the side to think. “...Probably around 14:00 at the latest?” There was uncertainty in her tone. 

“Was anyone else in the area between 12:00 and now?” Brown asked the group. 

“I went down there to grab a tool,” Yellow offered, briefly glancing up. The tremor in her voice betrayed her anxiety. 

“I went to storage to water the plants,” Pink said, trying to recall whether the door to the electrical room had been open when he’d walked through storage. He hadn’t bothered to stop by electrical, though, as he was already preoccupied with other tasks. “...And get some supplies.” Blue had asked him to bring back some more rags, as some of the medbay’s supply had somehow gone missing. 

“I went to storage to check on the other containment boxes.” Lime’s voice was barely a whisper. “...Didn’t pass electrical, though.” He was staring down at the table. 

When it became clear nobody else was going to speak up, Green finished typing and addressed the others. 

“Okay, if nobody heard or saw anything, we’ll need to conclude this meeting. Is anyone willing to clean up Orange’s body? It needs to be disposed of according to MIRA protocol.” Protocol was to eject any human remains out of the airlock, as not only was it creepy to know you were sleeping on the same ship as your friend’s corpse, but also because if the remains were preserved on the ship, they’d probably get eaten by an imposter anyways. 

“I will. I’d like to examine the body, anyways,” Blue said, and Pink suppressed a sigh, knowing that she’d probably make him help with the cleanup. 

Green nodded and typed something else into his tablet.

“If nobody else has anything else to say, then meeting adjourned.” Brown dismissed them all with a wave of their hand. Everyone stood and began to separate, murmuring amongst themselves. 

“Stay safe,” Pink told White, looking into her eyes. He tried to quell the worry that was rising inside him- telling himself that the weapons room which most of her duties were in was regularly frequented by the others, so it was unlikely she’d be targeted- but the fear was still there. 

She nodded, biting her lip. “Same to you.” They hugged, embracing each other tightly before separating. 

When Pink turned around, Blue was waiting, Little Blue nowhere in sight. She’d probably convinced one of the others to look after the little nuisance somehow. 

“We need to go to electrical,” she told him, then started for the door to the admin hallway. Pink put on his helmet and followed her. 

The electrical room was as creepy as always- even when someone hadn’t just been murdered in it, it always held sort of an unnerving vibe. Whether it was the wires everywhere, or the lights that always seemed ever so slightly dimmer than the rest of the ship, Pink had never liked the place. 

Blue, however, walked towards the divider, where Orange’s body lay. Pink trailed behind her nervously. Based on how distraught Purple looked at the meeting, he was worried about what exactly had happened to Orange. 

“Brace yourself,” Blue warned as they neared the divider. Pink could already see quite a bit of blood splattered on the equipment beyond the divider. 

Orange’s body was in worse state than he’d expected. He was covered in blood, and entire chunks of him were _missing_... as if someone had taken a bite out of him. Pink realised with a shudder that they had. From what he’d heard, imposters were known to consume their victims after killing them. 

“Are you okay?” Blue was looking at him. “If you want, you can go back to Medbay. There are things to do there.”

Pink realized he’d been staring at the body, almost in a trance. It was the most gruesome thing he’d ever seen, though he forced himself to shake his head.

“I’ll help clean up.”

Blue’s examination of Orange’s body was brief. She typed notes on her tablet, taking pictures and explaining to Pink that many of Orange’s wounds seemed to have been inflicted antemortem, all very matter-of-factly. Imposters seemed to enjoy human pain and fear, for reasons that Blue said MIRA researchers were still trying to figure out. Pink wondered how she could be so calm. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Blue was anything but calm. She tried to tell herself that she’d dealt with imposters before, that only one person had died so far, and they still had a chance against them, but she’d never had her daughter with her when she’d helped to deal with previous threats. Now, the little crewmate was in danger, all because Blue had accepted this mission and brought her along. _Kyrie’s going to kill me, if this imposter doesn’t._ She’d left her daughter with Yellow, who had always been quite good with the little girl. Yellow was caring and enjoyed humoring Little Blue, and at the same time was good at keeping her out of danger. Though Blue didn’t want to let her daughter out of sight, she knew that exposing Little Blue to a crime scene at such a young age couldn’t be good for her mental health. 

What disturbed her, however, was the manner in which Orange had been killed. There were a series of burns on his face, the kind that typically resulted from crewmates making accidental contact with a live wire. However, this seemed more purposeful. As if the burns had been inflicted one by one, leading up to Orange’s final cause of death, which seemed to be blood loss from the removal of his eyes and arms. Somehow, however, nobody had heard anything- which was strange, considering the vent a few feet away should have allowed sound to reach the ears of anyone in the security room or Medbay. 

She glanced at Pink, who was using a rag to scrub blood from the metal panels of the electrical room’s floor. Though she couldn’t see his face, she could tell that he was tense- she didn’t blame him. Though he and Orange had bickered a lot, they had been friends from what she could tell, and to have his first mission so suddenly compromised like this must have been difficult for him to deal with. 

_I can only hope that we manage to catch whoever it is before more people die…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry Orange...


	8. Evening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crewmates try to act like things are normal after Orange's death. Deep down, however, they know things will never be right again.

The day seemed to pass by in a blur for Purple. Around her, the others moved on with their tasks, continuing to work somehow. Purple, however, barely managed to finish hers before it was 18:00. When she noticed the time, she sighed, sitting up in the navigation chair and grabbing her tablet before dragging herself to the cafeteria. 

There was a distinct lack of the usual buzz of conversation. Everyone eyed each other suspiciously, knowing that among them was the person who had killed Orange. 

Brown arrived in the cafeteria and made some mundane announcements- they’d be able to scan everyone the following day, to make sure to check in on your buddy every fifteen minutes, remember to follow the Level 3 guidelines as advised by MIRA. 

_But that didn’t stop Orange from dying. The guidelines didn’t save him._ Why hadn’t the guidelines helped? At Academy they’d always said that following the guidelines would prevent most of the deaths that happened out in space, that those who didn’t follow them were the ones who got killed. But Orange _had_ been following the guidelines. He’d begun wearing his helmet again as per Level 2 protocol, he’d been careful. He may have been sassy at times, but he wasn’t an outright rebel. Yet he died like one. 

“Purple, are you okay?” Pink's voice broke her train of thought, and Purple realized that her vision had been growing blurred by tears that were fighting to slide down her cheeks.

“I’m fine,” she snapped, her tone more harsh than she’d intended it to be. 

Neither Pink nor White tried to talk to her for the rest of dinner. Purple told herself she was fine with that. She was fine with them talking quietly to each other, just as she and Orange had done when they had inside jokes to giggle over. _Fuck this._ She couldn’t stay here any more. 

She stood up abruptly, grabbing her tray of food which she’d barely eaten, and dumped it in the sink. Then she headed towards the sleeping quarters. Nobody tried to stop her. Some part of her hoped they didn’t see her eyes, which were surely red, but most of her didn’t care. _Let them think what they want._

Upon reaching her bunk, she pulled off her suit and collapsed into it, finally allowing herself to sob alone in the dark. _Why did it have to be him. They said we’d be safe if we followed protocols… Did MIRA lie? Did my Academy teachers lie? Why? Why? Why?_

At some point, Blue came in, quietly letting Purple know that she was leaving Purple’s tablet, which she’d forgotten in the cafeteria, on the card table in the middle of the room. Purple pretended she was asleep, which Blue seemed to buy. After Blue left, Purple cried once again, before slowly drifting off into a fitful sleep. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Pink stepped out of the shower. He’d been trying to avoid thinking about Orange’s death, but the uncomfortable sense of dread had made itself at home in every room of the ship. It hung over the crewmates like a dark, foreboding cloud, promising more tragedy to come. 

As he got into his nightclothes, he wondered if he should check on Purple. She had seemed rather upset by Orange’s death, but she’d also seemed angry, and he worried that he’d be bothering her more than anything. Maybe Blue would talk to her, since they did share a room. 

Pink exited the shower stall, nodding to Yellow, who was waiting outside. Most of the crewmates were in the process of going through their nightly routines- Black and Green were brushing their teeth at one of the sinks, Lime was drying his hair at the counter, and Brown was waiting outside the other shower stall. Pink wondered why they only had two shower stalls for a ship that could theoretically hold a crew of eighteen, then reminded himself that whoever was paying for these ships to be built didn’t have to actually inhabit them. 

He headed into Bunkroom 3, where White was already in her bunk, flipping through a book. She looked up and smiled as he entered. 

They sat in their bunks in silence for a while, neither of them particularly wanting to talk about the day’s events. Then White spoke. 

“It’s kinda cold in here.”

Pink glanced towards the tiny vent on the wall. The bunkrooms were the worst ventilated rooms on the whole ship, due to the small vents which were designed to be too small for impostor-infected people to use them to get around.

“You know you’re always welcome to lay with me,” he replied, taking the hint. He scooted over in his bunk to allow for White to lay next to him. It was a bit cramped, as the bunks were obviously made for only one adult, but they managed to get into a somewhat comfortable position. 

“Who do you think killed Orange?” White asked out of nowhere. 

Pink paused. He hadn’t really thought about it. Nobody had really been acting weirdly lately, besides the general signs of stress due to the obvious problem of imposters running loose on the ship. Orange's death was so sudden he felt as if he hadn't really had the time to process it.

“...I don’t know,” he replied. “Everyone is either obviously disturbed, or, like… way too calm.”

“Hm.” White interlaced her fingers with his. “What do you mean?”

“I just… don’t see how they could be this used to death. Even Green seemed kinda nervous.”

“Isn’t it his first mission as a co-captain?” 

“Really?” Pink hadn’t realized that. “How’d you know?” When he thought about it, it made sense- Green had seemed quite bossy, almost too eager to give instructions and address the crewmates. It being his first mission as a co-captain made Pink realize that Green probably just didn’t have the whole job figured out yet.

“I heard Green and Brown talking about it,” White said, yawning. “Y’know, speaking of talking… Cyan seemed pretty quiet lately, didn’t he?”

“You’re right,” Pink agreed. “Maybe he’s just concerned by the death, though.”

White shrugged a bit. “I thought all the more experienced crewmates were used to this.”

Pink shuddered, wondering how much death someone would have to endure in order to be indifferent to it. “Let’s talk about something else maybe.”

“Fine with me,” White said. 

“What’s the worst chore, do you think?”

White paused, likely thinking. “According to Red, laundry.” The crewmates were all responsible for the laundering of their own clothing and suits, but the cleaning of towels and the like was part of the weekly chore rotation. 

“Heh, she really hates that one, huh,” Pink remarked, thinking back to all the times he’d heard Red complaining about the chore while the crewmates were gathered in the cafeteria. 

“Guess so,” White said. She snuggled closer to Pink, and he wrapped his arm around her. “Why… What’s your least favorite?”

“Watering the plants absolutely sucks.”

“I’ve got the dishes… Wanna switch?” She offered.

“If you want to.” Pink yawned. 

“Sure, but remember you’ve gotta do them after every meal.” 

“Anything’s better than watering the plants,” Pink replied, smiling. 

They both were quiet after that, and sleep slowly overcame Pink, despite the way Orange's death still lingered in the back of his mind.


	9. A New Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Blue finds the Medbay scanner broken, tensions among the crewmates are rising as they realize how dire their situation is.

Blue pressed her ID to the scanner at the door of Medbay, and the doors slid open. The lights blinked on as well, though as Blue stepped through the door she could instantly tell something was wrong. Her eyes were drawn to the far corner of the room, where the scanner was. Or, had been. 

The device had been smashed to pieces, with bits of metal and glass littering the floor. Blue hurried over to it, depositing Little Blue on one of the beds in the room on her way.

The scanner was no more than a twisted hunk of metal and sparking electronic parts now. Blue cursed under her breath, though she wasn’t particularly surprised. Any imposter with half a brain would have done this. She wished she could have started the scans yesterday, but she’d started a scheduled reboot of the scanner after lunch. Being an embarrassingly old model, the scanner took hours to reboot- it hadn’t finished the whole rebooting cycle until late into the night, after Blue had left Medbay. Or perhaps it hadn’t even finished rebooting. Maybe it was destroyed before then, smashed to bits by an imposter determined not to be discovered. 

Blue checked her tablet. 05:30. Nobody else was awake, and she wasn’t about to call an emergency meeting and disturb their sleep when they could easily learn the news when they woke up. 

With a sigh, she sent a private message to Brown and Green, then headed to the cafeteria for coffee. She was going to need it. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Brown’s tone was grim as they announced that the scanner had been broken. At first, Purple didn’t fully process their words, but the announcement was echoed by the other crewmates’ worried murmurs. Purple stared down at her plate of gray-looking eggs and shriveled bacon, which seemed much more unappetizing than usual somehow. Why was this happening to them? They’d done everything they’d been asked to do. Yet now Orange was dead, and imposters were loose on the ship. Someone must have messed up. Ignored the rules. Let the imposters free. 

“Purple… You should eat. It’ll make you feel better.” Purple looked up to see Pink looking at her. She glared back. As far as she knew, he could be an imposter, feigning concern as to not draw suspicion.

He averted his gaze, and Purple stared coldly for a second longer before looking back down to her food. She heard White and Pink whispering, but she tried to ignore it as she silently simmered among her own thoughts. _What if it’s them? They could be plotting to kill me right now, and I wouldn’t even know it. Any of them could be planning._ Suddenly wanting to escape the glances the others were surely throwing towards her, she discarded her tray of food at the sink and headed towards navigation. 

Purple tried to focus on her tasks- re-checking the ship’s course, rebooting one of the control panels as was scheduled, and a few other things she hadn’t gotten to- but fears began to drift into her mind. Maybe she was next to die. She would be killed at the hands of someone she’d thought was her friend, someone she passed in the halls daily, maybe even talked with regularly. Now, everyone was a suspect. 

Footsteps near the door of the navigation room distracted her, and she looked up, seeing Black standing outside.

“What do you want?” Purple snapped. Black’s face remained stoic as ever. 

“We’re meant to check on each other every fifteen minutes,” he replied, his tone not betraying anything. 

Purple huffed as he walked away, though a spark of guilt arose in her mind. She tried to brush it off, then got the sudden urge to message Orange. Before she could reach for her tablet, though, realization dawned upon her, and she felt a new wave of sadness welling up inside. _Why did it have to be him?_

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Blue took her place at the center table, next to Green and Brown. Around her, other crewmates chatted over their meals. Blue couldn’t stop herself from making a mental list of who was there and who wasn’t- Lime wasn’t sitting at the same table as Black, but he was often late to meals anyways. Red, Yellow and Cyan were together as usual. Blue noted that Purple was missing from the firsties’ table, but didn’t worry for her- if anything had happened to Purple, Black probably would have noticed it. She had to admire Brown for pairing them together. 

“Green, any further instructions from HQ?” Brown asked, tapping their fork on the table absentmindedly. 

“None.” Green was frowning, and reasonably so, Blue thought. HQ had been vague in their previous instructions, simply telling the crewmates to “follow procedure and remain vigilant”. She sighed. _Has HQ given up on us?_

“It’s alright. They’re like that sometimes.” Blue could tell Brown was trying to be reassuring. They’d really made an effort in helping Green with the leadership role, especially when the crisis began. 

Blue nodded. “Don’t worry. This is an… uncommon situation. They likely need time to draft a plan.” She knew her words would do little to comfort Green. He’d been working with MIRA for almost a decade already, he was likely familiar with their tendency to, for lack of kinder phrasing, throw out human lives. 

She glanced towards Little Blue. Her daughter sat, oblivious to the adults’ worries, swinging her legs on the bench as she ate. Once again, the urge to protect her arose in Blue, though she couldn’t quite figure out why. Obviously, there was the imminent threat of an imposter. But Blue couldn’t help but feel a rising anxiety, as if something could happen at any moment. She pushed away the feeling. _You’re letting your emotions take control. Don’t… you’re letting the imposter win before you’ve even found out who it is._

Green sighed. “I know. It’s just infuriating. They don’t need to restate the thing they told us pretty much every day in Academy- ‘follow the rules’.” 

Blue couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that- both times she’d been to Academy, almost every day they’d restated the old “follow the rules” mantra. 

“They could practically teach us another course with all the time they spent retelling us the rules,” Green went on. “I wouldn’t mind taking another course in place of ‘morning ruletelling’... Maybe I could take a class in convincing MIRA to message back.”

“I could do with another first aid class…” Brown mused. “I never did quite get a knack for it.” They then glanced around, as if worrying someone other than Blue and Green had heard them.

“Yeah, that’s probably why they put you on the ship with two doctors,” Blue quipped. Brown chuckled at that, and Blue smiled to herself, knowing despite the stress, they could still all have these lighthearted moments together.


	10. Crisis #2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the lights go out, something happens in the Admin room...

“I’m gonna go say hi to White,” Pink called over his shoulder as he headed for the door of Medbay. Blue barely nodded in response, and he headed out into the hall. 

The cafeteria was pleasantly clean as he passed through it- despite the stress of Orange’s death, the crewmates had been keeping up with their chores. 

Pink poked his head through the door to Weapons, but didn’t see White. _She must be checking in on Lime or something…_ He leaned against the wall, content with waiting for her. 

Then, the lights in the ship powered off. Startled, Pink nearly dropped his tablet. He froze, waiting for the emergency lights to turn on, but they didn’t. _What’s going on?_ Turning on his tablet, he messaged White.

[Pink] Wtf is going on  
[Pink] Where are u  
[White] w Lime y are the lights off??????  
[Pink] Idk?? Ur the engineer not me  
[Pink] Im in weapons plz come  
[White] okok do not get murdered pls

A distant bang sounded somewhere in the ship. Instinctively, Pink glanced around, though he couldn’t see anything in the oppressive darkness. He stared down at his tablet, opening the group chat. 

[Purple] WHATS GOING ON  
[Black] Power outage.   
[Brown] Everyone meet in the caf unless u are fixing the lights  
[Red] yellow is fixing the lights uwu  
[White] otw

Footsteps tapped the floor, and Pink was relieved to see White’s helmet illuminated by her tablet. Lime wasn’t far behind as they hurried into the cafeteria. 

The cafeteria was creepy in the almost-total darkness. Above, stars twinkled through the glass, not providing enough light to see anything. The blueish glow of the tablets held by the present members of the crew was the only light available. 

A moment later, the lights blinked back on. Pink squinted, the lights seemed almost blinding until his eyes adjusted to them. 

Everyone was gathered around the main table. As they sat down, casting suspicious looks at each other, Cyan, Red and Yellow hurried in from the admin hallway and joined them at the table. 

Brown, who stood at the head of the table next to Green, spoke. 

“I’m sure you’re all wondering what that was about.” 

The others looked to them expectantly. The room was filled with nervous energy as the crewmates awaited their captain’s statement. 

“Someone sabotaged the lights, and then came into the admin office. I shot at them, but by the time they’d left, Orange’s keycard and pocket knife were gone.” 

The table erupted into nervous chatter.

“Who was it?” Cyan asked, as if Brown could provide an answer.

“We’re all going to die,” Purple exclaimed, yanking on a lock of her brown hair. “We’re all going to be killed one by one…” 

“This isn’t good,” Lime was murmuring, then said something else that got lost in the talking.

Yellow was shifting in her seat nervously. “Why would someone do that?”

“So they could fucking kill someone, that’s why!” Purple snapped at her.

“Hey!” Red leaned towards Purple. “Don’t talk to her like that!” Purple looked as if she were about to talk back, but Green yelled, “Listen to your captain!” which shut everyone up. They all turned to Brown.

“I want detailed reports of where everyone was prior to the lights failing.” Brown’s voice was colder than usual, less casual. “Green will go first.”

“I was in the communications room, going over logs between MIRA and other ships that experienced imposter disturbances. When I heard the shot, I went to the Admin office to see what had happened.” Green’s report was matter-of-fact as he spoke to the captain. 

“I was in the security office, going over footage,” Cyan said. 

“I was in the upper engine room with Red.” Red nodded as Yellow spoke, as if to confirm her story. 

“I was in Medbay,” Blue stated. “Pink was with me for some time.” 

“What do you mean, for some time?” Purple demanded. “Was he with you during the sabotage or not?” 

Blue reluctantly shook her head. “...He left just before it happened.”

“Then it was him!” Purple slammed her hands down on the table. Pink stared at her. _Why are you accusing me? I thought we were friends!_ He knew Orange’s death had hit her hard-he was just as upset to lose Orange-but why did she hate him all of the sudden?

“Purple. Jumping to conclusions is getting us nowhere,” Brown broke in. “Pink, why don’t you tell us what you were doing at the time of the sabotage?” 

“I-I went to weapons to talk to White,” Pink said quickly. “But she wasn’t there, and then the lights went out, and I heard the gunshot-,” 

Purple cut him off. “Sure, she wasn’t there. So there’s nobody to prove that you were where you said you were.” 

“What about you, Purple? You’re acting kind of strange, aren’t you?” Red asked. Yellow raised an eyebrow. 

“I- Are you accusing me? I was in Navigation. Black saw me.” Purple gestured to Black, who merely nodded, his expression unreadable. “There! It wasn’t me! It has to be him!” 

“The timing is kind of sus,” Cyan muttered, just barely loud enough to be audible. 

“Pink? Do you have something to say?” Green asked expectantly. 

Pink stared around the table. All of a sudden, it seemed as if everyone’s eyes were on him, judging him, trying to tell if he was guilty. He couldn’t think of anything. He’d told them the whole story, and it wasn’t enough. 

“Wait,” White said in her usual soft tone. She stiffened when the attention in the room turned to her. “We… We were messaging right after the lights went out.” 

“Show me the timestamps,” Brown said, and White turned on her tablet and handed it to them. They checked it and handed it to Green, who typed something into his own tablet before returning it to White. 

“It seems to be about the time the lights went out,” Green confirmed. “That makes it unlikely that the culprit was Pink.” Relief swept over Pink, and he cast White a grateful look. 

“Who was it, then?” Purple asked, staring around the room wildly. 

“We haven’t heard from everyone yet.” Brown gestured towards Lime and White. “Lime, White, where were you?”

“I went to check on Lime, and found him in Shields just as the lights went out,” White replied. 

“So, that’s everyone.” Brown frowned. “Does anyone have any other-,”

“Wait.” Red spoke up. “Nobody was in storage? At all?” The others shrugged. “...So anyone could have gone through there. Don’t you think it’s kind of… Weird? How easy it was for someone to go into Admin and know exactly where Orange’s ID and knife were?”

“What are you implying?” Green asked. 

“It could have been Brown.” Red eyed the captain daringly. “...Or someone close to them. Or both.” Her gaze swept over Brown and Green. 

“It wasn’t me, I assure you.” Brown was clearly trying to keep their composure. “But I do think it’s entirely possible that it was someone who’s been in the admin office in the past day. I admit, I’d just left Orange’s ID and knife on one of the shelves, and anyone could have seen them.”

“So who’s been in there in the past day?” Lime asked, his voice trembling. He was nervously tracing the edge of the table with one gloved finger. He was the only member of the crew that wore gloves, for whatever reason- Pink had never really talked to him, so he hadn’t bothered to ask. 

Brown thought for a moment. “Blue first dropped them off, Green came in once or twice to talk about messages from MIRA, Black and Lime came in to drop off reports, and Yellow to report an issue.” 

“That’s over half the crew.” Cyan drummed his fingers on the table. “How the hell are we supposed to narrow this down?” 

“We’re forgetting that it could be more than one person as well,” Blue put in. “Remember, two specimens were lost.” 

“Brown, did you hear which way the culprit ran after leaving Admin?” Green said as he typed something into his tablet. 

Brown shook their head. “Unfortunately, no. My ears were ringing a bit after I fired at them.” 

Green frowned. “So we have no leads. Does anyone else have something to say?”

Around the table, heads shook. 

“Thank you for coming. You’re all dismissed.” Brown dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who do you think is guilty?? See if you can guess before the killer is revealed in a few chapters...


	11. A Discussion Over Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue, Green and Brown discuss suspects...

“We need to find out who it was that stole Orange’s ID and knife.” Green folded his hands on the table as he spoke. 

Blue nodded. Whoever it was likely was the imposter, and having one of the two imposters eliminated made their chances of survival higher. “Do you have any suspects in mind?” 

Brown shrugged, though Green spoke. 

“I think it was probably two people.” 

“Hm, that would make it easier for both of them,” Brown said, stirring their ravioli with their fork. “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that it’s just one, though.” 

Blue chewed on a noodle thoughtfully. If two people had worked together to commit the sabotage, it would have to be a pair, likely Red and Yellow or Lime and White, but if it were one person… She glanced at Brown, then at Green. They both seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. _If it were one person… That makes it a lot harder._ There seemed to be too many possibilities to consider. Cyan could’ve done it, but it seemed unlikely since the security room where he usually seemed to have tasks was decently far from the admin office, even with use of vents. Lime was a little more iffy, unless he was working with White, as was Black, since Black was usually in the oxygen room which was pretty far from electrical. If it were Yellow, then she'd have to be working with Red, which seemed entirely possible given that they not only fixed the lights but also generally worked the closest to the electrical room. But the most disturbing possibility- that Blue was sitting at the very same table as one or both of the imposters- was also somehow just as plausible as it being Red and Yellow. 

Both Green and Brown were familiar with the admin office, and were experienced enough to know enough about the ship to probably know how to sabotage the wiring in electrical. _Maybe I can get some answers out of them._ Blue decided to speak.

“Brown, why would the imposter leave you alive after taking Orange’s things?” 

“Hm…” Brown glanced towards the ceiling, as if thinking. “Well, for one, I’ve blocked off the vent to Admin, so that’s one escape cut off for them. And the gunshot probably scared them.” 

Blue nodded. It was common knowledge that the captain of every ship possessed a gun, to be used for emergency situations only. It was less common knowledge that Brown always carried theirs. 

She glanced over to the table occupied by Red, Yellow, Cyan and Lime. The latter was sitting a bit farther away from the first three, who had gotten rather close over the first few months of the trip. She looked at Red’s grin as she laughed at a joke told by Cyan, who was also laughing, then Yellow’s contented smile as she snuggled up to Cyan, whose lap she was practically sitting on. _Could it really be one of them?_ She gazed around herself at the cafeteria, taking in each very much human-looking face in turn. 

_Could it really be any one of them?_


	12. Tragedy: The Sequel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another body is discovered... But will Purple be able to convince them she wasn't the culprit?

Purple sighed and stared out the window of the navigation room. Life really wasn’t the same without Orange. She felt a tinge of sadness as she imagined his corpse floating forever through the vastness of space, never to return home. She balled up her fists. It wasn’t fair. 

_Life isn’t fair_ , taunted a voice in her head, which only made Purple more annoyed. Perhaps she was annoyed at herself. Or the universe, or even MIRA. She’d thought employers were supposed to at least somewhat protect their employees. Maybe both being in space _and_ keeping her basic right to safety was too much to ask for. 

A sudden buzz from her tablet startled Purple, and she reached for it to turn it off. The screen flashed with the familiar alert of an emergency meeting. 

As she walked into the cafeteria, she noticed White and Brown staring at her oddly. 

_What’s their problem?_ , Purple thought as she sat down at the middle table. White and Pink sat next to each other as usual, with Blue near them, casting glances towards Little Blue, who was sitting on the floor, occupied with some weird kids’ toy. Green sat near the head of the table, talking quietly to Brown, who stood near him. Lime waved to Cyan, Yellow and Red as they came in, chatting it up as if nothing was wrong. 

Brown then straightened and clapped their hands for attention. The chatter died down as everyone looked to them. _Wait… Something’s off._ Purple couldn’t quite tell what was wrong until Brown said it for her.

“Crewmates. I’m sorry to inform you of this, but Black is dead. White discovered his body in the oxygen room.” 

Murmurs rippled through the gathered group as they exchanged glances. Nobody had really been close with Black, but there was no ill will towards him either. He wasn’t annoyingly mushy like Pink and White, or bossy like Green. He was just a bit withdrawn. 

Brown continued, “I think it’s important that we-,” 

“Wait! Wasn’t Purple his partner?” Red butted in with a glare at Purple. “As in… She should’ve noticed that he was dead?” 

Cyan nodded. “That’s kinda sus, Purple.” He and Yellow were also staring at Purple, and now the rest of the table was beginning to look at her questioningly as well. 

“I didn’t fucking kill Black.” Purple snapped, glaring back at Red. “I was-,” What had she been doing all morning? She’d halfheartedly began a few of her daily tasks, then set them aside. She realized most of her time had been spent thinking… No… _Spiraling_ might have been a better word for the train of thought she’d been stuck on as it looped around and around the same worries for the better part of an hour or so. “I was thinking. I wasn’t anywhere near him.” 

“He was supposed to be your partner. Why weren’t you checking on each other?” Green demanded, his dark eyes narrowed with suspicion. 

Purple hesitated. She didn’t want to admit that, in all her anger over Orange’s death, she’d been relying on Black to do much of the whole ‘check-if-your-partner’s-still-alive’ thing. 

Red took the opportunity to accuse her once again. “She wasn’t checking on him because she knew he was dead! Because she killed him!” Yellow patted Red on the back and murmured something softly into her ear, and Red took a breath as if trying to calm herself. 

“Purple, I know Orange’s death was sudden, but you’re acting kinda weird lately,” Pink put in. 

“No, you’re acting weird!” Purple retorted. “Orange was your friend, wasn’t he? Yet you don’t seem to care at all that he’s _fucking dead now_!” She realized the pitch of her voice had risen to almost a shriek, and she stopped talking, worried the others might take her hysteria as proof of guilt somehow. 

“Kind of weird how quick she was to accuse Pink last time, too,” Yellow said in her usual murmur. It was a remark clearly intended for Red’s and Cyan’s ears. 

“Shut _up_!” Purple yelled at her. “I… I didn’t… It wasn’t me, okay? I would never kill Orange! I wish you’d died instead!” She hadn’t really meant the awful declaration to be aimed at anyone, but everyone seemed to take it personally, and acted accordingly. 

“She literally wants us dead!” Red exclaimed, leaning in front of Yellow protectively. 

Cyan had balled up his hands into fists. “We should eject her.” 

“Purple, that… that was…,” Blue’s usual concerned voice got lost in the sea of accusations by the others. Lime’s lips were also moving, but he was staring down at the table, clutching his head, probably whispering to himself. 

“Yes. We need to eject her,” Red said with another glare towards Purple. 

Pink and White were talking again, though only to each other. They cast anxious glances at Purple, which told her all she needed to know about what they must have been saying. The cacophony rose, as everyone started trying to talk over one another. A jumble of voices commanded fragments of words, demanding ejection, explanation, a million other things Purple couldn’t provide. 

“ _Everyone CALM DOWN._ ” Brown yelled, a sound that startled the other crewmates into silence. They stared at their captain. 

“There will be no ejections. Before we condemn someone to death, we need reason to do so.” Brown’s voice was sharp and clipped as they spoke, and they massaged their scalp as if they were a parent with a headache. “We need to come up with a plan instead of riding off emotion and expecting that to get us anywhere.” 

“There is a murderer on this ship,” Cyan objected, looking pointedly at Purple. 

“We don’t know who it is for sure yet. We are not going to eject someone without evidence.” Brown’s tone was firm. “Cyan, I want you to go over the security footage for the past few hours to look for clues. White and Lime, I’m redistributing Purple and Black’s tasks to you. Red and Yellow, take turns guarding the electrical room. I don’t want it left unguarded. Purple, I don’t want you out of my sight, so you’ll need to help me go through the supplies in Storage. The rest of you, continue with what you were doing. This meeting is now dismissed.” Their words were spoken with a finality to them, and though it looked as if some of the others wanted to object, nobody spoke up as they donned their helmets and began to disperse from the table. 

Awkwardly, Purple followed Brown as they headed into Storage. 

“I’ve got to organize a few things, so you’ll need to unpack the first few boxes on your own,” they said. “We’re mainly focused on consolidating and organizing supplies that may have been packed incorrectly, so things that aren’t often used aren’t high priority.” They swiped at their tablet a few times, and Purple’s buzzed with a new message. She found that Brown had messaged her a list which was titled _Approximate Supplies - Skeld Mission T0098_. 

Purple sighed and began to sort the boxes around her by contents. She felt like an incompetent elementary schooler, being punished with menial work. It was _fucking stupid _. All because she’d been assigned to the crewmate who had to go and die while she was too distracted by Orange’s death to care to check on him.__

___So fucking stupid.__ _

__★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★_ _

__Pink trailed Blue as they headed towards the oxygen room. A flicker of anxiety rose in him as they neared it- images of Orange’s corpse still flitted through his mind, and there was no telling what state Black’s might be in._ _

__The room was almost normal looking as they entered, and they found Black’s body tucked into a corner that was hidden from view if someone simply looked through the door as they passed. It was, surprisingly, still in one piece, aside from the pool of blood underneath it._ _

__Blue dragged Black’s body away from the wall, laying him in the middle of the room. She then removed his helmet to reveal his face- or what had once been a face. It was now unrecognizable, having been mutilated enough that it resembled a mess of blood and shredded flesh._ _

__“Oh dear,” Blue murmured under her breath. It was clear that even she was a bit disturbed by the sight. “Rag, please.”_ _

__Pink handed her a rag, and she began cleaning the blood from around the gaping wound that was Black’s face. Somehow, she soaked up a decent amount of blood from his head and neck._ _

__“Look at this.” She beckoned Pink, who knelt next to the body to see what she was pointing at. “His neck- he was strangled.”_ _

__Surely enough, there was bruising and scratches on Black’s neck._ _

__“Can we match the handprints to someone?” Pink asked._ _

__Blue shook her head. “It’s likely whoever did this was wearing gloves to prevent injuries to themselves. And the handprints aren’t complete, so it’d be hard to find a sure match.”_ _

__“Well, is there anything we can get from this?”_ _

__“I think there is one thing… I think Black’s attacker must have been larger than him, or strong enough to hold him down,” Blue replied. “Otherwise he would have thrown them off before they had the chance to cut his face off.”_ _

__Pink shuddered at the thought, then returned his attention to the body. Black wasn’t a particularly small man, but he wasn’t large either. Though he’d initially thought Purple was the most likely suspect, she was at least a few inches shorter than Black, and hadn’t really seemed like the athletic type either. It might have been Lime, who was a bit more heavy than Black, or possibly Brown or Green, who were both decently fit._ _

__“Wait, imposters can use the vents to get around right?” He recalled the fact from the brief lesson on imposters that students of MIRA’s academy had learned._ _

__Blue turned her head towards the vent in the corner of the room and nodded. “Some of the vents, like the ones in our rooms, are too small for even someone with an altered body structure to fit through, but a lot of the vents near machinery are pretty large.”  
Indeed, the vent was more than large enough for a person to crawl into even with a helmet on. _ _

__“So it could’ve been anyone on the ship,” Pink realized. He’d been going through the list of people on the side that Black had died in, but if the vents could be used for travel, then Cyan, Red and Yellow also had to be considered. It was unlikely to be Yellow or Cyan, since they were both pretty short, but Red was tall enough to be able to unbalance and outweigh Black._ _

__“Pink, I need to ask you something.” Pink realized Blue had turned back towards him._ _

__“What is it?”_ _

__She hesitated. “Well… I know that… you and White are close, but… She hasn’t been acting differently lately, has she?”_ _

__Pink stiffened. _What is she implying?_ White hadn’t changed. She was still the same person. “No! Of course not. If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, you’re completely wrong!”_ _

__Blue nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry, but it’s my responsibility to consider everyone a suspect… And it should be yours, too.” Though her face was obscured by her helmet, Pink could tell she was looking at him with that weird almost-pitying expression of hers.  
 _I’m not your kid!_ , he wanted to yell at her, but instead he stood up. _ _

__“I’m going to go check on White.”_ _

__She didn’t object as he left the room, still slightly annoyed at her suggestion that it could be White. He and White spent almost every possible moment together, he’d have _known_ if something was wrong. _ _

__★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★_ _

__“Brown, does this box seem… underfilled to you?” Purple beckoned the captain over. She’d just opened the crate that was meant to contain rags, but had found it only about half full._ _

__Brown leaned over her to look into the crate. “That’s weird. Check the contents list.”_ _

__Purple pulled out the paper that was meant to keep stock of the contents of the crate. Each time someone removed materials from a crate, they were supposed to mark down what they’d taken and when. She read aloud the list, which had only been marked a few times._ _

__“We should only be missing about twenty-five units,” Purple noted. “But this is supposed to have a hundred in it, and it’s half-empty.”_ _

__Brown nodded. “That’s odd. Check if anything else seems out of place, I’ll make a note of it.”_ _

__“What’s going on?” Green had joined them._ _

__“We’re missing supplies,” Brown replied. “About twenty-five rags, to be exact. Do you know of anyone taking things without marking it down?”_ _

__Green shook his head. “It could be one of the firsties. Academy’s not as rigorous as it used to be.”_ _

__Purple frowned, though she knew Green wouldn’t be able to see it through her helmet’s visor. “We know how to mark off materials!”_ _

__Green just shrugged and headed towards the hallway to admin. Purple glared after him._ _

__“Ignore him,” Brown said with a laugh. “He thinks all firsties are incompetent.”_ _

__“Hmph.” Purple returned to her work._ _

__A few hours later, they’d gone through most of the supply boxes. All that was left were the specimen crates from Polus, which Brown had said were unnecessary to open, and the containers that had the crewmates’ extra suits in them. Each ship had one extra suit for each crewmate, in the event that something got torn or was malfunctioning._ _

__“Looks like we’re done,” Brown said, typing a final note into their tablet._ _

__“Wait, that one’s in front of the garbage chute,” Purple motioned towards a box that had been seemingly knocked aside. “I’ll put it somewhere else.”_ _

__“It’s one of the suit containers, so it’ll be heavy,” Brown cautioned._ _

__Surprisingly, the box was light, rattling when Purple picked it up. She shook it a little._ _

__“Is it supposed to rattle like this?” Boxes were supposed to be well packed, so that nothing would break in the event of a rough landing._ _

__Brown shook their head. “Maybe it was incorrectly packaged. We’ll need to open it up.”_ _

__Purple set the box on the floor and undid the latches, pulling off the cover and setting it aside. As she leaned over the edge to look inside, she almost gagged at the contents, recoiling immediately. Inside the box was a section of human skin, bloody and ragged, laid on top of the packaging. She recognized it to be a face._ _

__“Ohmygod,ohmygod,ohmygod,” she realized she was muttering. Brown closed the box, and she was sure if she could see their face, it would be creased into a grimace._ _

__They swiped at their tablet, calling an emergency meeting. Purple barely noticed the buzzing of her own tablet until Brown spoke to her._ _

__“Go wait in the cafeteria. I’ll deal with this.”_ _

__Purple grabbed her tablet and gladly headed to the cafeteria._ _

__She was the first one there, and she sat carefully at the middle table, trying to erase the image of the face from her mind. It was a bloody mask of skin, just _lying_ there, and she’d _shaken_ the box it had been in… _That’s so disgusting… So fucking disgusting…_ For a moment she felt as if she might throw up. _ _

__★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★_ _

__Blue walked to the cafeteria, holding her daughter. Pink had hurried ahead, probably anxious to see White, which Blue was fine with. She found the two’s infatuation with each other both amusing and worrisome- she’d learned a long time ago that blind love was a weakness, a threat even, and that was why she never went on missions with Kyrie._ _

___But you brought your daughter on this mission_ , said the voice in her head, and Blue couldn’t help but sigh aloud. It was true, but she hadn’t expected this mission to be so dangerous. _ _

__As she approached the round table where the crewmates gathered for meetings, she noticed that Purple was there already, looking quite _disturbed_ , like she had after finding Orange’s body. Blue made a mental note to check in with the crewmate later. _ _

___Where’s Brown? They did call this mission, after all._ _ _

__As if on cue, Brown walked into the cafeteria, speaking in hushed tones with Green. Lime was a little behind them, clearly not paying attention to what they were saying._ _

__Once everyone had gathered at the table, Brown addressed them._ _

__“Thank you all for coming. I regret to inform you that we found a… face in Storage.”_ _

__“What- just a face?” Red asked. “No body?”_ _

__“Creepy,” White muttered._ _

__“I’d assume it came from Black, since you’re all alive now,” Brown noted. Indeed, everyone around the table was very much alive and still had intact faces._ _

__“It likely was his. His head had been mutilated, and we assumed it had been eaten.” Blue glanced over to Little Blue, hoping her daughter wasn’t hearing this._ _

__“The skin tone looked like Black’s as well, so I suppose that solves that.” Brown typed something into their tablet. “In regards to his death, Blue, Pink, did you find any clues on the body?”_ _

__“We think he was killed by someone who either outweighed him or overpowered him,” Blue responded. The crewmates exchanged glances, probably sizing each other up, trying to determine who could reasonably overpower Black. Blue, personally, thought the evidence probably ruled out Purple, Yellow and Cyan, who were shorter than Black and didn’t seem athletic enough to keep him down long enough to strangle him and cut off his face._ _

__“There! It wasn’t me.” Purple sniffed, throwing a meaningful glare in Cyan, Red and Yellow’s direction._ _

__Cyan looked like he was going to say something back to Purple, but Green glared at them._ _

__“Let’s keep from fighting over nothing.” Green said coldly._ _

__“This isn’t _nothing_ , people are dying,” Cyan argued. “I still don’t trust her.” _ _

__“I don’t trust you either,” Purple spat back, as Brown interjected._ _

__“Crew. This bickering is useless.”_ _

__“Anyways. MIRA has told us to turn around and return to Polus, as they have working scanners.” Green put in. “If nobody else has anything _useful_ to say, this meeting is over.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ouch,.. rip to Black 
> 
> Check in next time to see who's next on the chopping block!! And that's it for this episode of Chopped: Human Edition


	13. Chicken Casserole is the Catalyst to Apologies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few conversations happen in the cafeteria following the emergency meeting.

Purple stood up from the table. It was 17:48 anyways, almost the time dinner would normally be served, so most of them stayed in the cafeteria. Purple joined the line for the meal dispenser, listening into Cyan, Red and Yellow’s conversation ahead. 

“One of us couldn’t’ve done that,” Red was saying, shuddering. Yellow patted her comfortingly on the arm. 

“Cutting his face off… Why would they do that?” Cyan was clearly creeped out. 

“It’s awful,” Red agreed. 

Yellow nodded. “We’ll protect each other, though, right?” 

“Maybe we should do all our tasks together,” Cyan suggested, which the others briefly considered before Yellow shook her head. 

“We won’t have enough time, then Green will lecture us for being lazy or whatever,” she sighed and picked up her tray as the machine finished dispensing the evening meal- some mush filled with chunks of something that might have once been called meat, along with vegetables that looked like they’d never seen the sun. The three headed off for their own table as Purple grabbed her own tray and bowl. 

As she sat down at the empty table the ‘firsties’ typically occupied, she found herself not particularly hungry. Whether it was the sight of Black’s cut off face, or MIRA’s talent for making perfectly good dishes completely unappetizing, or some combination of both, she found herself staring up through the windowed ceiling instead of eating her chicken casserole. 

Pink and White set down their trays together at the other end of the table. 

_Should I try to talk to them?_ Purple glanced at them. They were absorbed in conversation with each other, not paying attention to her. Yet things still seemed awkward between them all. _Maybe I should apologize…_ Yes, an apology seemed like the right thing to do. 

She scooted closer to them, and they both turned to her, confusion and a hint of hostility on their faces. 

“Hey… I just wanted to apologize.” The words came out awkwardly, and Purple hoped this hadn’t been a bad idea. “You know… For… Acting like a bitch for the past few days. And… And accusing you of stealing Orange’s stuff.” She looked to Pink, then to White. For a moment, their expressions were unreadable, and she feared that they’d yell at her or just walk away. 

Then White nodded, softly uttering a “thanks.” 

“I appreciate the apology,” Pink said slowly, almost hesitantly. There was still a trace of resentment in his tone, as if he hadn’t fully forgiven Purple, but he continued. “If it counts for anything… I don’t think it was you either.” 

“We know it was hard to… lose Orange,” White added. 

“Thanks for understanding,” Purple replied, since it was really the only thing she could think to say. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

“We really need to figure out who it is.” Brown’s voice was determined as they spoke to Blue and Green, who nodded in agreement. The way Orange and Black had been killed made Blue nervous- She knew, of course, that imposters fed off the fear and pain of their victims, but the care that had gone into killing them slowly never failed to disturb her. 

“Wait. Isn’t there some kind of door log, that tells whose ID has been used to open which doors?” Green asked. 

“I’ve tried that.” Brown’s tone was dejected. “Both times, Orange’s ID was used to close the door to whatever room the victim was in.” 

“So it’s someone who knows about the door log systems.” Blue realized that probably ruled out anyone who hadn’t learned about the ship’s system in detail. “Any other clues?” 

Brown hesitated. “Well… We found something in storage. Or, a lack of something, more like.” Blue leaned in. “Orange’s extra suit is missing.”

“What would they want that for?” Blue wondered aloud. Both Brown and Green shrugged. 

“Were they using the oxygen tanks as a weapon?” Blue suggested, but Brown shook their head. 

“The oxygen tanks weren’t missing, just the suit.” Their tone was concerned, and rightly so- not knowing what an imposter was planning was both frustrating and a little terrifying. 

“This isn’t good. We need to come up with prime suspects, before we all get killed.” Green tapped his nails on the table anxiously. 

“I’m starting to think it’s a pair. Maybe White and Purple or Pink. Or Red and Yellow, or Red and Cyan, or something like that…” Blue let her voice trail off. Her last suspicion wasn’t something she should suggest in front of the very two people she suspected might be working together against the crew. _If it is Brown and Green, we’re all screwed._

“I doubt that it’s either Red, Yellow or Cyan- those three are always together. I still suspect Purple, but killing her own partner is dumb, even for her,” Green said. 

Brown stayed silent, probably thinking up their own theories. 

“Mama, I’m hungry,” Little Blue whined, tugging on Blue’s suit. 

“Alright, let’s go get you some food,” Blue replied, leading her daughter to the food dispenser. Behind her, Green said something to Brown, who laughed. 

_I really do hope it’s not them._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are Green and Brown sus? Or could it be someone else...


	14. Not Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Purple discovers something unexpected in the locker room...

Purple glanced around the empty cafeteria as she walked through it towards the locker room. It always felt so weird being in here alone- there was usually someone grabbing an extra snack, or chilling at one of the tables, or being a pesky little child looking for things to break. Now, her only company was the stars. 

_Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic._ Purple sighed as she headed into the locker room, then froze. 

In front of one of the sink basins lay White, crumpled in a pool of blood. Purple took a step back, then realized the slight rise and fall of White’s side. She was _breathing_. 

_Gettomedbaygettomedbaygettomedbay_ was the only thing running through Purple’s mind as she rushed to medbay. Blue and Pink stared up at her as she ran into the room, breathing heavily.

“White’s hurt,” she gasped, and they jumped up and followed her. The world was a blur. Purple had just made up with White, and now she might be dying. _Are we all really going to die?_

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Pink couldn’t run fast enough as he followed Purple into the locker room. Sure enough, White lay on the ground in a pool of blood that was far too large, though at the very least she appeared to be breathing. He tried to stop the panic from rising in his chest as he approached her. 

“She’s breathing,” Blue confirmed, flipping White’s limp body over carefully. “She’s bleeding too- we need to find out where the wound is. Purple, get gauze and rags from medbay.” Blue carefully brushed the crewmate’s sodden hair out of her face. 

She and Pink examined White, finding a gash in her suit near her elbow, and another wound on her side. As they started bandaging her wounds, she stirred. 

“Ow…” She mumbled something incoherently. Her eyes flew open as Blue put pressure on the wound on her side. “Shit! That hurts!” 

“Sh- it’s okay now,” Pink told her, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice. He took off his helmet so she could see his face. “Here- squeeze my hand when it hurts.” He offered her his hand, which she grasped tightly. Her grip tightened as Blue continued applying bandages to her wound. 

“I called an emergency meeting,” Purple said as Blue finished, and White’s grip relaxed. Pink and Blue helped her to stand, leading her carefully through the cafeteria where some of the others were already gathering. Pink ignored them, focusing on helping White walk to medbay. _One of them did this to her…_ The thought burned in his mind, the knowledge- and fear- settling there like a weight. 

_One of them did this…_

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Blue settled down at the table alongside the others, who looked at her questioningly. 

“Purple, you called the meeting. What-,” Brown began, but was interrupted by Red.

“Cyan isn’t here!,” she exclaimed. “We can’t start yet.” Besides her, Yellow nodded in agreement. 

“Where is he?” Brown asked them. 

“He said he was going to sleep in… He must’ve not been woken up by the alarm,” Red responded. “I’ll go get him!” She jumped up from the table and ran into the locker room. A moment later, her scream echoed through the cafeteria. 

_Oh god, what now…_ , Blue thought as she hurried into the locker room, avoiding the puddle of blood they had yet to clean up. A moment later, she had her answer.

Cyan lay in a pool of his own blood, faceup, his throat split open in a wide gash. Thick crimson blood ran down his suit, spilling out onto the tile floor of the hallway that connected the crewmates’ quarters to the locker room. 

“No… No…,” Red sobbed, crouching in front of him. Even from where she stood, Blue could tell Cyan was long dead. Nobody could survive that much blood loss. 

Yellow joined Red, simultaneously trying to hold the other crewmate and wipe at her own tears. “Not Cyan…” She whimpered, and Red clutched her tightly, as if she might lose her too if she let go. 

The others retreated into the locker room. It felt wrong to intrude on Red and Yellow as they mourned the loss of Cyan. 

“Blue, I’m assuming White was injured by whoever killed Cyan?” Brown asked, and Blue nodded.

“It’s likely,” she said. Something else disturbed her, though. “I think… I think he was killed by someone he knew.” 

“Someone he knew?” Purple questioned. 

“You mean…” Green’s voice trailed off, prompting Blue for a longer explanation.

Blue took a breath. “Cyan was killed by someone he didn’t want to hurt. Either that, or he was taken by surprise. There aren’t any defensive wounds, it’s like the killer just walked up to him and slashed his neck.” 

“Wouldn’t that get them covered in blood?” Lime questioned, voice trembling. He seemed queasy at the mention of blood, and had purposefully turned his back on the pool of blood in front of the washbasin, where White had been attacked. 

“We’re missing a lot of rags from storage. Whoever did all this has clearly been hoarding them and using them to clean themselves off.” Brown’s response was blunt. 

Blue motioned to a trail of droplets loosely leading to a vent in the corner of the locker room. “Looks like we know what route they took, too.” 

Green cautiously opened the cover of the vent. Sure enough, there were smears of blood on the inside. Lime glanced away, though Blue and Brown edged closer, trying to peer into the darkness. 

Purple just shuddered. “So they are using the vents.” 

Blue nodded as Green spoke. 

“So… We need to figure out what happened here.”

“It seems like White was at the sink basin, when she was attacked from behind. But before her killer could continue stabbing her, they noticed Cyan and went after him.” Blue thought for a moment before continuing. “I think they were trying to drown her.” She recalled White’s soaked hair, and the large pool of blood seeming diluted somehow- it was also likely partly water.

“Why drown someone you’ve just stabbed?” Purple asked. 

“Her wounds weren’t deep. They were probably trying to keep her from fighting back.” Blue frowned as she imagined White’s attacker enjoying every minute of her panic as they held her head underwater. It also explained why Cyan was killed so quickly in comparison. He wasn’t the intended target, and the imposter must have panicked as they realized Cyan had seen them. 

“We should ask her,” Brown said, but Blue shook her head. 

“Not now. She needs to rest.” She’d left Pink and White in medbay, since he’d insisted on staying with her. 

“What if she’s killed before then?” Lime’s voice was high with worry. 

“Blue and Pink will be with her. She’ll be fine,” Brown reminded him. 

Red and Yellow emerged from the hall. Yellow was still sniffling as Red held her hand, glaring at the others as they glanced awkwardly back at them. Her glare was much more of a challenge than she realized, considering Blue had just noted that Cyan was likely killed by someone he knew. 

“Now what?” Purple sounded dejected. Her feelings were reasonable, and Blue couldn’t suppress a spark of sorrow. Purple had been a happy person when she arrived on the Skeld, the embodiment of a hopeful firstie ready to take on the entire universe. 

Blue sighed. “Hopefully White will be able to talk to us when she wakes up."


	15. Interview

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White tells the others what happened.

“Are you sure you’re okay now?” Pink asked White as she sat up. 

“I’m fine, stop worrying,” she insisted, though she winced as she raised her hand to wave it at him. 

She’d just awoken from a nap, which Pink and Blue had insisted she take both for their sanity as much as hers. “We can’t lose another crewmate,” Blue had said, acting like they were all her children as usual. Her actual child, Little Blue, had occupied herself with “hide n seek” which wouldn’t have been such a big deal if she’d told someone she was playing. Instead, she’d jumped into a random cabinet and crouched there giggling for nearly half an hour while Blue nearly had a stroke looking for her. The little demon was currently having a nap of her own, evidently exhausted from her ‘game’. 

“If you say so.” Pink waited for Blue to return to the room with Brown. The captain had been anxious to hear White’s report of what had happened in the locker room. 

Brown entered, led by Blue, and they stood at the end of White’s bed. Pink glanced up at them, noticing for the first time the worry evident on both their faces. Though they may have been experienced, the events of the previous few days were clearly wearing on them. 

“White. I’m glad to see you’re recovering well,” Brown told her. “Do you mind telling us what happened in the locker room?” 

White glanced towards the ceiling, as if thinking. “I… I was filling a bucket of water at the sink basin, and it was already full of water since I think someone had been doing laundry in it…” She swallowed, as if the memory made her uncomfortable. Pink placed his hand on hers as she continued. “I… One moment I was leaning over the bucket to see how much water was in it, and the next someone shoved my head under… I tried to stop them but they cut me, and it hurt so badly… Everything went dark, I think they let go of me because I woke up on the floor.”

“Are you aware Cyan is dead?” Brown asked, and White nodded. “Did you see anything?”

White shook her head. “It was… really sudden. I… I’m sorry.” 

“Take as much time as you need,” Blue assured White. Pink squeezed her hand, and she smiled weakly. 

“I… I didn’t see anyone’s color,” White continued. “But… they said something to me… I couldn’t hear it, but… I think it was a high voice. Like a woman’s.” 

Brown typed this quickly into their tablet. They then asked White a few more questions, which she answered a bit more surely. 

A few minutes later, Green entered the room. To Pink’s, and likely everyone else’s surprise, he was carrying a tray of food. 

“You idiots forgot to eat. I’m not getting reprimanded by HQ because the incompetent crew I was assigned to got some kind of malnutrition from _forgetting to eat_.” He set the tray down on the desk near the door, annoyance evident in his voice. 

“That’s a nice sentiment, but… It’s not that late, is it?” Brown asked. Blue turned on her tablet and gasped. 

“It’s- It’s already 18:30,” she said, surprise evident in her tone. “Thank you, Green.” 

“Yeah, thanks,” Pink added, as Green headed for the door. 

“Don’t expect this again,” Green called over his shoulder, and Pink couldn’t help but laugh at the co-captain’s façade of gruffness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uH next chapter and the one after that,,, those are gonna get kinda violent lol.. hope their titles arent TOO spoiler-y UwU


	16. You Shouldn't've Eaten That

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink is attacked by one of the imposters.
> 
> **Warning: Violence!! Though I suspect you probably expected it considering this is literally an among us fic

Blue yawned. She felt unexpectedly tired all of a sudden- maybe Little Blue was rubbing off on her. She glanced over to White, who was asleep, somehow. Relieved that her patient didn’t seem particularly stressed from her near death experience, Blue stood up from her chair, where she’d been working. 

“I’m going to take a short nap. I’ll be back in a bit,” she told Pink, who was sitting in a chair next to White’s bed, working on his tablet. He’d already changed into sleepwear, but hadn’t actually gone to sleep, insisting that he needed to stay up to watch over White. 

“‘Kay,” Pink replied, barely looking up. 

Blue scooped up Little Blue and headed for her room. It was 22:00, and the locker room was quiet now- most of the other crewmates had gone to bed. She yawned, making a mental note to set an alarm. She gently laid Little Blue into bed and tucked the child in, taking a moment to admire her daughter. Then she set a timer for an hour and climbed into her own bunk. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Pink glanced up, gazing into the dark hallway. The Skeld had entered its night mode an hour ago, just after Blue had left with her daughter, and only the soft glow of the emergency lights lit up most of it. The lights in medbay were still on, but the contrast between them and the dimness of the rest of the ship was eerie. 

He suppressed a yawn. It was a bit late after all. _When’s Blue coming back?_ He glanced towards White, still sleeping soundly. He couldn’t go to sleep with her still sleeping here. It was dangerous. 

_I’ll go for a walk. Activity’ll keep me awake._ He started for the door, turning once more to glance over his shoulder at White before he started down the darkened hall. 

It was creepy as ever, lit only by the blueish emergency lights which provided half the usual light but were designed to save energy when the ship was in sleep mode. He turned the corner and ever so briefly caught a glimpse of someone in an orange suit, swaying almost like a mirage. 

_What the fuck?_ Pink rubbed his eyes, and when he looked back down the hall, the figure was gone. _Maybe I should ask Blue for a psych eval… Hallucinations are definitely not normal…_ He knew Orange was dead, and there was no reason for his corpse to have spontaneously come back to life. It wasn’t even on the ship anymore. Yet a shiver ran down his spine, and Pink figured that was enough walking for the time being. 

He turned to head back to medbay when the sound of footsteps-heavier and faster than his own- reached his ears. He whirled around, and the orange suit was back, except now it was running towards him. Pink froze. He wanted to run, but his body wouldn’t move. Fear coursed through his veins, but his slippers might as well have been made out of concrete. Part of him kept expecting the hallucination to dissipate as it neared him, but the other half was hit with a realization that made him tense up even more. 

_That’s not a hallucination._

The suit hit him, full force, knocking the wind out of him. _Shitshitshitshitshit._ As he hit the ground, the figure raised their hand. They were holding a knife-no, half of a pair of scissors, and they plunged it into Pink’s shoulder. He gasped, managing to grab onto their wrist as they raised it to stab him again, but his shoulder burned, _oh god holy shit it burned_. 

_I need to get out of here_ , his mind screamed, and in a moment of panic, he jabbed his knee into his attacker’s stomach. As they doubled up in pain, he shoved them off him and stumbled away. 

_I need to get to medbay._ He ran for it, probably faster than he’d ever run before. Stumbling into medbay, he fumbled with his ID card, pressing it to the sensor just as the orange-suited figure jumped through the closing doors.  
Pink barely dodged as they slashed at him. 

“Wait,” he panted, walking backwards to avoid the onslaught of attacks. “Wha- what do you want? We can talk through this...” He was glancing wildly around the room, looking for something to use as a weapon, something to protect White- he caught sight of her, still sleeping, _somehow_... 

The figure didn’t respond to his question, instead catching him off guard with an elbow to the face and shoving him down. Pink fell against the wall- he hadn’t realized he’d backed up so far- then, before he could do anything, the imposter jammed the scissor blade through his arm and into the wall. He kicked at them, trying to shove them away, but they fished another blade from their pocket, seized his other arm, and repeated the action. Pink screamed as the wave of pain hit him, a noise that was muffled quickly by the thick orange glove clamping over his mouth. 

“Shh. She’s sleeping. _Deeply._ ” The imposter motioned towards White, who was indeed still sleeping. She made no signs of stirring other than the murmuring of something incoherent.

 _What did you do?_ Pink stopped thrashing and stared at the imposter, who emitted a laughing sound that was both unnerving and frighteningly familiar. His own terrified expression stared back at him in the reflective visor of the orange suit.   
“Why don’t I take this off so you’re not looking in a mirror this whole time.” With their other hand, the imposter reached for their helmet, and Pink squeezed his eyes shut and jerked his head away. _I’m not giving you another reason to kill me!_

“Aww. You don’t want to see me?” The voice was clearer now, not dulled by the helmet. The tone dropped menacingly as the imposter continued speaking. “You’ll see me, even if it means I have to cut off your eyelids.” The grip on his jaw tightened, and Pink’s eyes flew open. He turned back to find himself face to face with Green, who was smiling coldly. Pink realized he’d almost never seen the man smile, but his smile was _terrifying_. It was a slit, carved into a mask that Green wore, a mask of coldness. 

In that moment, Pink realized he was staring into the eyes of the man who’d killed Orange and Black, the man who’d cruelly and sadistically _murdered_ them, who’d taken the time to carefully plan out everything he’d do to make their final moments hell. 

“Why don’t we play a game.” Green smiled as he withdrew a knife from his pocket and flicked it open. Pink realized with a jolt it was Orange’s- the stickers Orange had plastered all over it gave away its ownership. 

Green continued talking. “If you win, maybe you’ll stay alive long enough that someone will realize you’re missing. If you lose… Well, I’m sure you’ve figured out what’ll happen if you lose.” He tilted his head to the side, still smiling. Pink imagined him saying these same words to Orange, to Black. “Do you accept?” He removed his hand from Pink’s mouth. 

“ _No!_ Fuck off!” Pink kicked at him, even as pain shot through his arms. He yelled louder, hoping to wake White, or _someone_ , anyone who might have been awake at the time. “ _Help!_ Green is-,” Green smacked his hand back over Pink’s mouth, and Pink winced as his head banged against the wall behind him. 

“Such a shame. You seemed like you’d be fun to play with.” Green twirled the knife between his fingers. Pink kept writhing, kicking at him, trying to get him away. He stopped as he noticed the trails of blood running down the wall more as he flailed. Then, almost without warning, Green plunged the knife into Pink’s shoulder, right below where he’d previously stabbed him. Pink’s vision blurred as tears welled in his eyes. The hot, metallic smell of blood was everywhere. The world was a haze. Green stabbed him again. Pink tried to kick him, maybe he could get one of his feet, which he was currently kneeling on, but slippers apparently weren’t the best thing to wear when you were trying to actually cause someone pain with your foot. 

Then there was a beep from the door, and Green turned suddenly, releasing Pink and holding up the knife defensively. The doors slid open to reveal Brown, holding a gun ahead of them. Brown froze as they took in the scene, and the world seemed to spin around Pink. It was as if he’d just been thrown into a washing machine, a washing machine filled with daggers, and they’d torn through his skin and were now watching him bleed as the machine slowly spun around him. 

Green swiftly knelt down and held Orange’s knife to Pink’s throat. 

“Drop the gun.” 

Brown held the gun steadily, but their eyes were wide enough that it was clear they were… Unprepared? Anxious? It was hard for Pink to tell. He winced away from Green, but the other man pressed the knife into his throat. 

“Drop your weapon first.” Brown kept the gun pointed at Green, who simply shook his head. 

“You don’t really have a choice, do you? Unless you can kill me in the second it’ll take to slit his throat.” 

Brown stiffened, and Green continued his derision.

“If you try to fight me here, Pink might not make it… And you’ve never really had a knack for first aid, have you?” 

Pink was barely processing what Green was saying any more. The world continued spinning around him as Brown dropped their gun. At Green’s request, they kicked it away from themself, and Green stood up, probably smiling in his creepily unnerving way. Exhaustion clouded Pink’s mind as Green spoke once more. 

“Why don’t I give you a choice…” His words seemed to blur together. “You can fight me here, and you won’t endanger the others. Or you can run and get help…” He paused, daring Brown to make their move. 

Brown ran. 

Green started after them, but Pink just barely managed to stick out a leg and trip him up. Green fell to the floor as the darkness closed in on Pink’s vision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative title: violent psychopath with a long history of violence cosplays your dead friend!!
> 
> Also White has top tier sleeping skills... Girl teach me your ways plEAse
> 
> Yes the food was drugged


	17. More Violence!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Purple is attacked by the other imposter.
> 
> **Violence warning still applies for this chapter!!

Banging on the door startled Purple. She’d been drifting to sleep, almost dreaming, and nearly fell out of her bunk at the sound. 

She glanced over towards Blue- not that she could see her, as the lights were off. _How is she still sleeping?_

Purple jumped up and hurried to Blue’s bunk, shaking her as the banging on the door continued. Someone yelled something- was that Brown’s voice?- as Blue stirred.

“Huh- has my alarm gone off yet…,” Blue mumbled.

“Your alarm went off like a half hour ago, you just dismissed it and went back to sleep,” Purple told her. 

Blue sat up immediately. “Oh shoot- What’s that sound?” She stumbled out of her bunk as Purple spoke. 

“I don’t know… Someone’s at the door, I wanted to wake you…” 

Blue pushed past her and hurried to the door, though her footsteps were uneven. It was clear that she was oddly drowsy. She turned on the room light via the panel on the wall and unlocked the door. 

Purple gasped at the scene before her. Brown was struggling with Green, who had a knife in his hand. _Orange’s_ knife. More noticeably, Green was wearing an orange suit, and was practically covered in blood. Purple felt a flash of anger. _He was trying to use Orange's suit as a disguise?_

“Blue, get to Medbay,” Brown gasped, and Blue nodded, glancing once more at Little Blue then at Purple. Purple understood- Blue was trusting her to watch her child. 

“Purple, help me get this away from him,” Brown managed. They were holding onto Green’s wrist- the wrist of the hand that held the knife. Green jabbed an elbow at Brown’s face, and they staggered backwards, losing their grip on Green. 

Purple lunged at Green, gasping as he slashed at her and barely missed. Brown grabbed him from behind, grabbing the arm he held the knife in and twisting it behind his back. Green howled, struggling against Brown, but the captain dragged him backwards, throwing him into a room and pressing their ID against it. They quickly swiped at the panel, activating the emergency lock. 

“Stay here,” they said through heavy breaths, and turned, running into the locker room. Purple leaned against the wall, wincing as Green started banging on the door. 

Lime emerged from Bunkroom 4, running towards Purple. 

“What- what’s wrong?” He asked, and Purple noticed he was trembling. She then noticed all the blood on the floor, and remembered Brown had been bleeding as well. 

“Green… He was one of them…” She tilted her head towards the door, then with a jolt realized the banging had stopped. _What the fuck is he doing?_

Just then, the panel next to the door began to display an error message. Purple stepped away from it. _What does that mean?_ She wracked her brain for the meaning of the words the panel had just displayed to her. The realization hit her as the door was shoved open by Green. 

Purple and Lime backed away as Green advanced. He brandished Orange’s knife menacingly, and Purple realized she’d left hers in the bunkroom… _Along with Little Blue… Shit._ She and Lime both jumped in opposite directions as Green charged them, and Purple ran for the bunkroom, determined to close it. Behind her, she heard Lime yelp, but she didn’t turn around. _He can handle Green for now. I need to help Little Blue._

She ran into the bunkroom, relieved to see Little Blue still sleeping. She grabbed her ID from the shelf above her bunk, then her knife. She hurried out of the room, pressing her ID to the panel outside and locking it. 

Suddenly something was thrown around her neck, tightening and dragging her backwards. Purple dropped her ID and knife in surprise, and they clattered to the floor. She gasped for air, trying to claw away whatever was around her neck. 

“Would you like me to kill you quickly? Or would you like me to drag out your suffering?” A familiar sweet voice whispered, close to her ear. _Yellow?_

Purple lashed out, catching Yellow in the eye with a blow that sent her staggering away. The tightness around Purple’s neck disappeared, and she fell forwards, scrambling to her feet. 

She turned to face Yellow, who was holding a scarf that she’d just used to choke her. Yellow’s normally mild expression was now painted with malice, and Purple grabbed for her knife. _She’s been an imposter this whole time…_

“Sorry… I can’t allow that.” Yellow’s voice was creepily calm as she ran at Purple, throwing her full weight at Purple and knocking her to the ground. She was small, but a lot stronger than she looked, and Purple struggled to push her off. 

“You didn’t answer my question.” Yellow smiled as she withdrew a knife from the pocket of her pajama pants. 

“I’m not going to!” Purple yelled. Yellow raised an eyebrow. 

“Are you sure?” Her tone didn’t change as she dug her knees into Purple’s stomach. Purple desperately reached for her knife, but it was just out of her grasp, lying a few feet away on the tile floor. She gasped as Yellow jabbed a knee harder into her stomach. 

“Get off!” Purple again tried to shove her off, but Yellow seized one of her wrists and slashed at the other. Purple gasped as her own blood splattered her face. It was hot and sticky, followed by a flash of pain in her palm as the realization that it had been sliced open set in. “ _Help!_ ” she screamed, hoping the others would hear. 

Yellow laughed, a light and unnerving sound. “They’re as good as dead. Green drugged them... They won't be able to fight back. Well, all but Lime, but you know how useless he is anyways.” 

Purple froze. Her blood slid down her wrist, and Yellow tilted her head to the side, studying her response. 

_No. There’s no way they’re all dead._ Anger raced through Purple’s veins, and she shoved at Yellow with all her might, unbalancing her. Purple twisted away, though a stab of pain shot through her palm when she placed it on the ground. She lunged for her pocketknife, grasping the handle as something grazed her leg. 

Or she thought it was a graze at first. Looking downwards, she saw a dark stain forming around a jagged rip in her pant leg. She pulled her leg away as Yellow swiped at her again. 

Swearing under her breath, she clambered to her feet, nearly collapsing against the wall. Her breaths came fast and she could almost feel the sweat on her brow, but Yellow was blocking her only exit down the hall. 

A gunshot rang out from somewhere in the ship, then another. Yellow glanced in the direction it had come from, and Purple took advantage of this, running towards her and shoving her down. She buried her knife in Yellow’s stomach before Yellow could stop her, and Yellow’s cruel smile disappeared, replaced by only cold anger. 

“How _dare_ you,” she choked, but Purple dug the knife in harder, twisting it and shoving it upwards. Yellow gasped, and her blood gushed out onto Purple’s hand as she shoved it into Yellow’s gut. 

“How dare you do that to my friends?” Purple yelled at her. Yellow’s struggles gradually became weaker. She’d dropped her knife, and she uttered no words any more, just ragged gasps. Purple thought of Orange, of Black, of Cyan, of White, as she yanked the knife out and plunged it in again. She felt it scrape Yellow’s ribs, but that didn’t matter. Yellow needed to die. 

“Die,” Purple whispered, yanking out the knife and stabbing Yellow one last time, this time in the neck. Yellow made a gurgling noise as she fell to the floor, her eyes glossing over as blood poured from her wounds. Purple was suddenly overcome with a wave of exhaustion, and she stumbled, barely catching herself on the blood-splattered wall. 

“Purple!” Lime was running towards her, Brown close behind him. Lime stopped when he noticed all the blood in the hall, raising his hands to his mouth as if he was going to throw up. He took a deep breath as Brown helped Purple to stand. 

The rest of the night was a blur for Purple. She vaguely remembered walking through the cafeteria, seeing Green’s body, and heading into Medbay. She collapsed immediately on one of the beds, and fell into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guess who the imposters were? 
> 
> Two chapters left! I'll post them when I'm done editing :))


	18. After the Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is still alive after the violence of the last two chapters, yay! Well, everyone besides Red, but who cared about her- JKJK Red didn't deserve death :') Anyways, Blue, Purple and Pink reflect on the events of the previous night.

“You should really get some rest.” 

Blue turned around to see Brown standing in the doorway of Medbay. 

“You look like you should, too,” she replied. It was true. Brown had dark circles looking almost engraved into their pale skin, contrasting with the white bandage Blue had applied to their face not more than an hour before. 

Brown shook their head. “I need to report this to MIRA, and the Polus base so they know what to expect when we land. There’s too much work to be done for me to sleep now.” 

Blue nodded. She was glad she hadn’t decided to go the route of captain- they always seemed overworked, not to mention how much responsibility there was. Too many people looking to them for advice, expecting them to know exactly what to do. Then she sighed.

“I can’t sleep now.” She gestured to the occupied beds behind her. Pink, White, and Purple were still injured, though they were all asleep now. “What if one of them wakes up and needs something? Plus, everything needs cleaning… God, there’s so much blood everywhere.” 

Blue felt as if she’d never seen this much blood, though she definitely had on previous missions that had also been compromised. She felt as if she had to practically tie down Little Blue to prevent her daughter from splashing in the blood puddles like a kid on a muddy sidewalk. 

“You can’t be expected to do your job properly if you haven’t gotten enough rest.” Brown’s words were frustratingly reasonable. Blue finally relented. 

“All right, but if there’s an emergency I need to be woken immediately.” 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

Purple felt awful. 

Not emotionally, though she was sure MIRA was going to order her off duty for at least the next few months after she got back from this mission. It was what they did to every crewmate on a compromised mission, mandating therapy so that they wouldn’t be taken to court for allowing emotionally destroyed people back out into space. 

But her calf ached horribly, and she winced as she remembered how Yellow had sliced it open the previous night. Not to mention the wound on her palm- both of those weren’t going to stop hurting for a while. She couldn’t wait for them to get to Polus, where they most definitely had more medical equipment that was stronger and faster-acting than whatever Blue had given her. 

She sighed and sat up in bed. She was in Medbay, which was more crowded than ever. Blue was sitting at one of the desks, typing up something on her tablet. Her nuisance of a child was, thankfully, sleeping in one of the other beds. Purple hoped she’d stay that way. 

White was pacing at the other end of the room, a few feet away from the bed Pink was sleeping in. 

“White, why don’t you go clean up something,” Blue suggested to her, but White shook her head. 

“What if Pink wakes up?” She argued, glancing towards Pink. “He was there with me when I… got hurt.” Purple suspected that she was still upset she hadn't been awake to help in the fight against the imposters. 

Blue nodded. “And he’ll probably appreciate not stepping out of Medbay and finding the cafeteria covered in blood.”

She continued as White hesitated. “I promise, I’ll tell you if he wakes up. But all that pacing is distracting.”

White bit her lip. “Okay…” 

“Don’t exacerbate your wounds,” Blue reminded as she headed for the door. 

Purple suddenly itched to do something. “I’ll help,” she said, scrambling out of bed, then stopping and wincing. All of a sudden it felt as if she’d kicked a cactus. Needles pricked her leg, as if they were tearing at the flesh, threatening to reopen it. 

Blue was already standing and heading towards her. “That may not be a good idea…” 

Purple sucked in a breath through her teeth. “I noticed.” The pain faded to a dull ache again as Blue approached her bed. “Sorry… This fucking sucks.” 

Blue nodded understandingly. “I need to give you a checkup anyways, but I’d really recommend not moving around too much for the rest of the day.” She asked Purple a few mundane questions, then assured her that they’d be on Polus in a few days, where they’d be able to use the scanner at the base they landed on in order to make sure there wasn’t any further damage. Purple knew this, of course, but it was a bit reassuring to have Blue say it anyways. 

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

“You’re awake!” 

White’s overjoyed voice broke into Pink’s mind as he opened his eyes. He blinked, then raised his hand to rub his eyes, but immediately winced. Moving _hurt_. 

White and Blue stood over him, the latter typing something into her tablet. 

“How do you feel?” Blue asked, as White helped him sit up. 

“It feels like I’m still getting stabbed,” Pink muttered, and it was true. Every time he moved, pain shot through his arms, lingering even as he tried to keep them still as possible. 

“Not much I can do about that… I already gave you painkillers,” Blue replied. “They might take some time to work though.” 

“What happened?” Pink asked groggily. Clearly Green had been taken out, otherwise he wouldn’t be alive right now. But he knew nothing about the whereabouts of anyone aside from Purple, who was working on her tablet in one of the other beds, and Little Blue, who was trying to wedge herself into another cabinet. 

White explained that Yellow had been the other imposter, and she and Green had been killed and thrown out the airlock as per protocol. Brown and Lime were still alive and trying to keep the ship going, though considering how they were running on such a small crew, it was clearly more difficult than usual. 

“Oh, and Red died as well,” White added, a sad look on her face as she described how Red had been killed by Yellow almost mercifully- Yellow had smothered her in her sleep, it appeared, and left her for the others to find. 

“So it’s over,” Pink breathed. They’d found the imposters. They were on their way to Polus. There wouldn’t be any more death.

“It’s over,” White confirmed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter, which will be the epilogue


	19. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue :)

Blue glanced around the Polus cafeteria. The Skeld’s crew had landed on the base a few days ago, and were already preparing to return to Earth. 

“They’re going to need a lot of therapy,” she noted, watching Purple, Pink and White chatting at a nearby table. Lime joined them, along with a few of the Polus inhabitants.

Brown nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they quit.” 

“Are you going to quit?” Blue asked them. She’d noticed that the captain had seemed a bit exhausted since the events of the previous few weeks had begun.

Brown shrugged. “Maybe. It’s been a lot.” They eyed Blue, curiosity sparking in their gaze. “Why, are you?” 

“I… I won’t be bringing Amirah out to space again,” Blue said, looking towards where her daughter was mixing ketchup packets into her stir fry. “Not that my wife would let me even if I wanted to…” She sighed. “But I do know I need to prevent this from happening again. I’ve seen too much unnecessary death out here. Space should be a new horizon, not something to fear because your employer’s too incompetent to protect you properly.”

“Think you can convince MIRA of that all on your own?”

“I think I need to try. For all the people who’ve died. For all their lives, and mine. And for the future.” Blue thought of her daughter, who’d always looked up to Blue for having gone to space. She wanted to protect her. She needed to protect her. And that would begin here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cant believe i wrote this in 14 days-
> 
> Anyways this is the first fic I've finished! Let me know if you liked it or if you have suggestions for me to improve upon. Thank you!


End file.
